


longer than forever: extended version

by nigoi



Category: Kingdom Hearts, Naruto
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Chakra-impaired Riku, Gen, Hatake Kakashi Tries His Best, Hokage Candidate Kairi, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Jinchuuriki Discrimination, Kairi & Riku & Sora Friendship (Kingdom Hearts), Medic Sora, Reincarnation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-01
Updated: 2020-06-01
Packaged: 2021-03-03 01:49:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 38,786
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24496750
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nigoi/pseuds/nigoi
Summary: Sora, Riku and Kairi eat a paopu fruit. Maybe it wasn't the best decision, but, then again, it kind of was. Prepare yourself, Naruto'verse, 'cause the Destiny Trio is here and they're staying!Or: the Destiny Trio reincarnates in Naruto as Team 7. Chaos ensues.
Relationships: Hatake Kakashi & Kairi & Riku & Sora (Kingdom Hearts), Kairi & Riku & Sora (Kingdom Hearts), Kairi (Kingdom Hearts) & Rock Lee, Kyuubi | Nine-tails | Kurama & Sora (Kingdom Hearts), Riku (Kingdom Hearts) & Uchiha Shisui
Comments: 8
Kudos: 113
Collections: Identity Crisis





	longer than forever: extended version

**Author's Note:**

  * For [P----](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=P----).
  * Inspired by [longer than forever](https://archiveofourown.org/works/14855837) by [nigoi](https://archiveofourown.org/users/nigoi/pseuds/nigoi). 



> hi! this is the rewrite of [longer than forever](https://archiveofourown.org/works/14855837)! whether you've read it before or you are new, i hope you enjoy!
> 
> ps: i expected this to be 5k...... you see how that prediction went

_He never imagined the paopu fruit to be so bitter_. 

_Scrunching his face, he turns to look at his two friends, who are making similar expressions to his, and he can’t help but smile._ Really _, he thinks with irony,_ how can a fruit so bitter represent a legend so sweet? 

_The thought doesn’t stop his chest from swelling, though, nor his eyes from watering. After so much time apart, it’s..._ nice - _to be sitting on the same tree again, to exist next to them. Sometimes, just being under the same sky doesn’t cut it. There’s not enough fingers in his hand to count the sleepless nights he’s spent looking at the stars and regretting not having shared the fruit with them when he could._

_“...Now,” he says, stuffing another piece in his mouth to hold back the tears (spoiler: it doesn’t work), “we’ll be together forever, right?”_

Sora wakes up amongst shouting.

 _...What_ is his first thought, as someone lets out a grunt of pain. _Where am I? Where are Kairi and Riku? Are they okay? What happened? What’s_ \---

Something blows up.

His vision is blurry, his ears are ringing and leftovers from the explosion hit him in the face. This doesn’t even enter the top twenty worst things he’s ever experienced, but for some reason, he breaks out into ferocious sobs that rack his entire body in a way that he hasn’t experienced since he was eight and Riku had just broken his leg. What - what is happening to him?

Something warm surrounds his entire body, and the only thing he glimpses through his tears is a flash of yellow. Then, his surroundings change, and Sora stops crying from pure what-the-hell. 

The same warm thing --- a hand, isn’t it? A hand brushes his hair, tender, like Riku does on his most unguarded days. Sora’s chest hurts.

“I wonder who you take after,” the owner of the hand mutters fondly, and retires the appendix in question, leaving him so cold he breaks out into shaking. He’s abandoned there, against something hard (a tree, he finds out when his fingers trace out the bark), and when the yellow disappears, Sora starts to hyperventilate-slash-sob against his will.

And then, another set of hands, more rough and calloused, takes him. The owner, a man with orange covering his face, starts to speak, and something hard and pointy presses against his throat. Sora doesn’t need eyes to know it’s a knife, which in any other situation wouldn’t faze him, but right now it scares him shitless.

The man starts to speak, voice low and raspy and so, so dangerous. There’s a roar in the distance, and the only thing on his mind is---

_I hope Riku and Kairi are having a better time than me._

Riku remains silent, pillow buried in his ears, even though his entire body trembles.

Not that he is trembling by his own will, he reflects, and the thought is bitter. Being trapped in an _infant’s_ body is certainly full of disadvantages, and losing the self-control he has fought so hard to obtain isn’t even a footnote on the list of shit --- both literal and figurative.

Something inside of thrums and burns as a roar explodes in the distance. Riku doesn’t scream, but damn does he want to. This shitty baby body is the worst thing that has happened to him since --- he doesn’t know, betraying everything he stood for in a futile megalomaniac quest? Almost causing the death of his two best friends? Wearing a black _cloak_?

The door to his room slides open. 

Riku remains silent. His breath stops as someone steps closer. No, not just someone --- he knows exactly who it is: his brother, Itachi whatever-his-surname-is.

He walks up to Riku’s - cradle (it’s mortifying just to think the word) and starts caressing his hair --- something Itachi’s prone to do, Riku’s noticed. Maybe because his hair is so different from his pseudofamily’s, a nice gray in a sea of dull black? He’s overheard more than a few conyugal arguments about it; apparently, his hair is destroying a marriage, but he really doesn’t care.

“Are you okay, little silver?” Itachi whispers, worried and high-pitched. It’s been a long time since Riku found that tone of voice annoying, and the lack of irritation is so big it leaves him empty. Why is he developing bonds with literal children, like a paedophile? That’s not something normal, respectable people do.

Then again, he’s trapped inside a baby, so he can’t speak about normalcy anymore. Not that he ever could.

He doesn’t answer, but Itachi takes that as permission to pick him up and carry him to the garden. To the garden. Where the screaming is louder and people’s hurried steps resound against the pavement and his ears hurt and they’re going to burst and something alien enters his body and starts to _burn_ \---

He doesn’t cry, but it’s close.

Itachi rocks him, murmuring little reassurances that shouldn’t be effective but are. In spite of it being so embarrassing Riku is ready to die, the warmth of the touch and the voice is enough to dim his pain and allow him to fall asleep.

The house shakes, the floor shakes, the walls shake and her bed shakes.

 _Ugh_ , thinks Kairi, holding back a yawn. _Is it too much for a girl to want to sleep? Is someone pulling a prank on me?_

First, her parents couldn’t stop screaming about auburn hair and unfaithfulness and blah blah blah, no matter how much she wailed for them not to. Now the very night they finally have gotten a divorce, the very fucking night, some shit has to fall down and threaten her with another sleepless night. So that’s what you want, huh, world?

There’s a roar in the distance. Her father yells. 

Well, you’re not gonna get it. Kairi glares at the wall and, with the experience of a thousand nights, covers her ears with pillows and blankets. It’s suffocating, but at least that way she can sleep. Ha, take that, world! You may have (temporarily) separated her from her boys, but you won’t separate her from sleep!

  
  
  


Sora tries not to hurt as he watches all these kids making new friends, laughing, shouting, playing, smiling.

He doesn’t manage it. 

His hands tighten over the swing he’s on, and he kicks the floor with a little more force than necessary. Hey, who can blame him for wanting to watch the sky as he swings? It’s the only thing that remains from the Destiny Islands. There isn’t even a body of water in Konoha --- he’s not asking for the sea, not anymore, but at least have a lake, man. Or a river. Or a puddle.

Kick. Up, down. Kick. Up, down. Kick.. Up, down. Ki---

An indecipherable voice stops his mind-numbing rhythm. “Sora? Is - is that you?”

His feet brush the floor, and his hands go limp on the rope, before tightening again. How the hell does someone know his real name? Is there a mind reader in here? If there are mind readers in Konoha, things are going to get weird. Squinting, Sora scans the crowd for the owner of the voice, and--- and---

Silver hair. Blue eyes. A hideous sense of fashion. It can’t be--- 

“Riku?” he says, and it’s choked little thing, full of vulnerability. His eyes suddenly water, but Sora wipes them before any tears slip. “Please tell me it’s you.”

And because he was always a rebel, instead of telling him, Riku envelops Sora in a hug _so_ fierce he lifts him off the swing. Sora can’t help but blink --- he could count the hugs Riku had given him with the fingers of one hand, at least until now, when he has finally gotten around to using two.

Time is still for that second, but just that one. In the next, Sora is already hugging back, smiling, grinning, beaming against Riku’s shoulder. And here he was, stupidly thinking he was alone. Truly, life can change in less than a minute, and for once, that change is good.

Hours later, after telling each other what they’ve been up to until now and settling down to watch the sunset in comfortable silence, each one reflecting about whatever (he himself has flashbacks from his old life), Sora has a realisation:

“Wait,” he says, breaking the silence. “Does that mean Kairi is also here?”

Riku’s head whirls around to stare at him. 

“Uh…”

Kairi is Kairi and Kairi survives even dying, so if they are here, of course she is too.

That’s the conclusion they come to, after which they begin their search for scary smart girls around their age. Soon, in one day of search, they find her. Or, better said, she finds them (because of course she does, no matter they’ve been searching for her for days).

The situation is this: Sora and Riku wander through the streets, having decided to explore their new home now that they had company to enjoy it. It’s not a very nice home, they realise --- a benign dictator isn’t a great leader to people who come from a democratic republic, no sir, not at all. And even if he’s “”benign””, Konohan citizens sure aren’t.

“This is shitty,” Riku grumbles under his breath as they walk. Some bystanders give him the stink eye, but that’s nothing compared with the eyeful of shit they give Sora. He’s kind of tempted to get into a fistfight, but Sora stops him every time he inches close to the line. 

Sora’s mouth quirks, even though his heart completely agrees with the notion. He opens his mouth to answer and---

There’s a gasp from behind, and a, “ _finally_ ,” so full of joy one would think a serious amount of birthdays was happening. 

It’s a familiar voice, but at the same time it isn’t. Sora can’t think _it can’t be_ , because it definitely can, but he tries not to get his hopes up too much. Even so, he turns around a second after Riku and _yes!_

“Kairi!” he exclaims, and his face hurts from how much he’s grinning. 

She’s here she’s here she’s here! All blue eyes and auburn hair and round face and lovely person all around! Aahhhhh, he can’t hold it anymore, he needs to touch her to confirm she’s real. Aahhhhhh!

But before he can proceed to do exactly that, Riku acts. With determined steps, he walks up to where Kairi is standing, parted mouth and wide eyes, and envelops her in a hug. It’s not fierce, but it’s full of love, and Sora doesn’t waste time to join in.

Kairi giggles and hugs them back. “Guys, guys! There’s no need to be so enthusiastic.” She says it in her teasing tone, the same one she uses when she calls him _lazy bum_ , but it has a touch of… something. She lets out a long, longing sigh, and says, in one breath, “I can’t believe I found you.”

Riku trails his fingers over her face, wiping her tears. She giggles again, and leaves a big MWACK! on both their foreheads.

Of course, after finding her boys, Kairi decides to join the academy. She has been passing by as a relatively normal child (as normal as she can be, anyways, which means starting a spy network and sabotaging a bad teacher without getting caught on one particular time), but now that her boys are back, it’s time to bid it goodbye. Normalcy can go to hell if she can’t be with them.

That, however, raises protests from her father. The man never knows how to keep his silence, and more now that he doesn’t have a wife to moderate him, so Kairi was kind of expecting it, but _still_. Does someone hear annoying? Because she hears annoying. Annoying.

“Blah blah blah blah,” he is saying, red-faced and unnerved. “Blah blah blah blah blah…”

Kairi nods dutifully, and mentally rearranges her head to shoot her arguments as quickly as possible. She knows from experience that if she lets him speak, he will never ever ever (ever ever) shut up. 

“Sakura,” he says, and the use of her no-name gets her attention. “You can’t---”

“Kairi.”

“Huh?”

“I’ve told you a thousand times to call me Kairi,” she says, her smile not moving an inch. Retraining her muscles from zero has been a pain, but at least it has paid dividends in amplifying her unsettlingness.

“...Kairi,” he tries, and it sounds like pulling teeth. Kairi doesn’t comment. Her smile remains the same. “You can’t join the academy.”

“Yes I can,” she chirps. “I don’t even need your permission. I’m just notifying you about the inevitable.”

Her father’s hand drags against his face, slow and pained. When it’s finished, he says, voice surprisingly vulnerable, “Is this because of that Naruto kid?”

Kairi frowns. “His name is Sora.”

“I don’t care,” he snaps, and takes a deep breath. “You have to stop seeing him. He is…” 

“He is?” Kairi raises an eyebrow, and makes sure her face is the perfect picture of contemptuous disbelief.

He looks away. Sighs. “Nothing, Sa - Kairi. It’s nothing.”

“Sasuke.”

Riku grunts. At Fugaku’s reproaching look, he adds, reluctantly, “Father.” Just not to have another lecture. Everything but another lecture, please.

“You will not be seen with Uzumaki Naruto again.”

It’s an order, and Riku has never been good at following orders, so yeah, another lecture incoming. According to Sora, he has a bleeding heart that bleeds even more when someone commands him to do something. He has denied it thousands of times, but it’s kind of true. His chest constricts with fury every time Fugaku gets that tone. And he gets it very, very often.

“Of course I will,” he says, perfectly level. And, before Fugaku can argue, he leaves the room, a tactic he has learnt after years and years of endless arguments. If you don’t cut the conversation short, he will never shut up.

The last thing he hears before the door slides shut is his mother’s soft voice, “Leave him be, dear. He’ll come to his senses…”

Riku scowls, and ignoring Itachi’s piercing eyes on him, storms out of the house. He needs to see Sora and Kairi to extinguish the flame of destruction that has emerged, that sits low in his stomach. He’s not strong to fight against his family and win. Not yet.

In his past life, Sora had loved to walk through the Destiny Islands. He had loved to smell the salt of the sea, to feel the sand tickling his feet, to watch the stars or the clear sky looking over him… It had been great.

However, the past was the past, and this is now. And no matter how much Sora might want to return to his real childhood, the truth is that it’s impossible. 

It’s not that they throw him stones (well… except one time), but the people from Konoha are not exactly nice. Everytime he goes out, everybody stops their conversations to look at him and whisper, and a three-meter barrier is erected in between him and the world.

Compared to when his friends stopped by to chat or fight with him when he passed them by, a long, long time ago… He doesn’t want to admit it, but his life now is kind of lonely.

 _Was,_ he reminds himself sternly. _Riku and Kairi are here now, so I’m not alone anymore_. 

However, that doesn’t stop his stomach from clenching everytime he has to go out on his own and endure the people, like right now. Even staring unsuspiciously at the floor and counting the pebbles on his path doesn’t stop the whispers from reaching his ears.

“Have you heard…”

“...the Uchiha’s secondborn…”

“...brainwashed.”

“They must be so afraid…”

“Poor parents.”

“Poor kids.”

Sora doesn’t think.

He doesn’t think as he grocery shops, even when he’s overcharged. He doesn’t think as he walks home, whispers accompanying him like a soundtrack. He doesn’t think as he opens his door, steps on his creaking floorboards. And he certainly doesn’t think as he lays boneless on his sofa and sighs the longest, heaviest sigh he’s ever sighed, groceries forgotten at his feet.

Ninja academy sucks. It gives Sora the creeps, seeing six-year-olds so eager about killing people. At their age, he was only eager about pummeling the life out of someone metaphorically, not literally. ...That makes him sound like an old man, man. 

Really, it’s makes him wonder why he’s here. Except no, it doesn’t, because it’s clearly that old man’s, the hokage’s, fault --- him and his emotional blackmail, a threat threaded in between the soft words that fell from his lips. The next day, Sora had been enrolled in this place and---

“Sora!” Kairi’s voice, a mix between annoyed and amused, pulled him out of his thoughts. “Are you listening, you silly boy?”

Great, now Kairi will have ammunition against him for the next week. Sora grimaces and buries his face in Riku’s shoulder to hide his expression. Nonchalant, Riku loops an arm around his waist. His fangirls squeal and groan in envy in the distance, and the three of them ignore them. 

“I am, I am. Don’t you trust me?” he tries, but he doesn’t have to see Kairi’s face to feel her disbelief. “Okay, sorry, I’m not. What were you saying?”

“I _said_ ,” she says, and bops Sora’s nose, before dropping her arms back to her waist and raising her chin. Sora scrunches his face and covers his offended body part. ”I’ve found the way to be on the same team!”

Find: code for _asked the goddamn big spy network I’ve made for myself, because I’m the best people person this fucking world has ever seen, and they’re the best informants. Somehow. Even if they are a big bunch of nobodies. That’s what makes them the best, in fact_. What a great word.

“Really?” He straightens up at the same time Riku’s arm tenses. 

Kairi’s grin gets bigger. It’s not quite like Chesire’s, because nothing could ever be, but it’s the closest rendition he’s ever seen. “ _Really_.”

She doesn’t say anything else. Clearly, she’s waiting for them to ask.

In a normal day, with a normal topic of conversation, Sora would play hard to get and not ask, but - but! This can’t wait. This can’t wait because if Sora is stuck on another team with another set of people he’s going to go _crazy_.

He pouts. “Kai-ri! Don’t make us wait and tell us.”

“Please,” Riku tacks on, always helpful.

“Well, if you ask me like that…” She trails off, but restarts when Riku clears his throat pointedly. “There’s only one team that’s certain each year --- well, two, but one of them isn’t possible for us. So, one. The deadlast with the top boy and the top girl.”

“Ooooh,” Sora says, mind whirling for what that meant. It means---

“I and one of you have to be the best. And the other... has to be the deadlast,” Kairi proclaims, eyes fixated firmly upon Sora. 

He bristles. “Hey!” 

He wants to compete against Riku for the top --- it’s one of the things he’s been looking forward to about being surrounded by eight-year-olds in this place. The competition. They can’t take that from him, man.

Kairi stomps on the floor, pouting. “C’mon, Sora, you give off the aura of a deadlast.”

“I do?” he answered, strangely offended.

She shakes her head.“I mean, Riku is all serious and composed, and… you’re not. The deadlast stereotype is not clear and composed, you know? Deadlasts are bubbly and hyperactive and smiling.”

“But!” Sora says, but even he knows it’s no use. He sighs and leans his head against Riku’s shoulders. (There’s more squealing in the background.) “Okay.”

Kairi squeezes his shoulders. Her eyes are sympathetic. “It’d be only for a few years.”

“I know,” he says, but purses his lips.

And that’s it. From that moment on, Sora flunks his grades so hard it’s a wonder he isn’t expelled for being dumber than a fetus. Because man, one time he scored a negative mark. A _negative_ mark. He’s incredible like that.

Being the official deadlast doesn’t mean Sora can’t train, obviously. Even if he has to do it in the hidden area to end all hidden areas. Okay, it’s just a training ground no one goes into but the things is that nobody sees him train. 

After spending his entire old life fighting, be it in mock battles against his neighbours or in real battles to the death, there’s no way Sora can’t stop fighting. It’s just not in his nature, not being able to defend himself. That’s why he joined the academy, after all, why he couldn’t be away from brawls in his last life. There’s something in his soul (souls?) that demands to be in movement. 

The punch-block-kick-block rhythm with Riku is lulling, even when his wooden sword leaves red gashes on his arms. A smile, almost a smirk, worms its way into his face, and Riku returns it as he slashes down again. Sora dodges and---

“Sora, Sora, Sora, _Sora_ ,” Kairi says, getting up from her spot under the tree. She always reads there while Riku and Sora fight, until it’s her turn to fight against the winner. To lose against the winner, if that winner is Sora, because Sora always wins. Ha ha. “Sora, Riku, stop fighting.”

They do, because Kairi always has a good reason to do things, but for the life of them, they can’t figure out the reason why. Or at least Sora can’t. What he’s thinking must be obvious, because, “Your _arms_ ,” she hisses, and oh.

Even though Riku had hit him there thirty second ago, his skin’s unblemished. Unhurt. There’s no trace of the red he’s sure he saw there earlier. 

“What the hell,” says Riku, mind obviously running the same thoughts. Sora’s clearly not this world’s standard recuperation rate, going by Riku’s unhealed purple eye and the bruise that’s been on his arm for the last three days. What the hell indeed. 

“Maybe this has to do with that weird seal in your stomach?” Kairi pats the zone in question, and Sora yelps.

“Maybe,” he says, giving Kairi the stink eye, “but we don’t have any way to check and no one is going to tell us, so.” He shrugs.

“Whatever, yes, yes, I know, I know.” Kairi waves her hand dismissively. “But this is so cool! Maybe we can replicate it! Imagine if we could go into fights and get out without a single injury! We’d be invincible!”

And Sora knows all the underlying meanings Kairi is trying to convey. Riku heals much slower than they did in their last life, and as a ninja that’s not really, er, advisable. “Yeah, that’d be cool.” How likely is it, though? 

They discuss it a bit more, and then they start going in circles and Kairi decides to fight, and then it’s Kairi vs Riku, whom Sora let win because he didn’t want him to feel bad. Yeah.

Sora, for his part, lays on the grass, looks at the sky, and ponders about what he can and can’t do. 

That night, he picks up a medicine book and starts to read.

“Guys,” Sora says one day, randomly, while they practise kunai-throwing in the middle of the forest. 

“Hm?” says Riku at the same time Kairi looks at him. She doesn’t throw a kunai while she does it, because that has already happened and it almost sliced his head off. He got a free haircut out of it at least, even if it was the ugliest thing ever.

Anyways, the point. “Don’t you sometimes miss the sea? Or the sand or something like that? ‘Cause I do. Miss it, I mean.” Saying it outloud, it sounds the cheesiest thing ever, but Sora’s never been afraid of being cheesy.

Kairi’s arms go limp, eyes turning a sad shade of blue, and Riku’s shoulders tense. As the latter only happens when Riku has an idea he isn’t sure of, that’s where Sora pounces. “Something to add, Riku? We’re all ears.”

“There’s a river in the Uchiha compound,” he says, eyes on the sky. “It’s not the same, but.” He shrugs.

And oh --- the _Uchiha_ compound. That place Sora isn’t allowing to for some goddamn reason. That place Sora enters anyways, just to spite the clan members. Well, used to, until he realised Riku got in trouble for it every time, although the proud moron didn’t ever say anything about it.

Well, this time they wouldn’t get caught, and that’s that problem solved.

Of course, in a place full of paranoic ninjas, that kind of thinking’s a bit - naïve. Really, Sora’s a bit annoyed at himself to have thought it unironically.

Outwardly, though, he has better things to do. As he drops to his knees, the water all around him splashes. The river current is strong, but not enough to carry a sea expert like him, even waist-deep. “Please, Riku’s cousin,” he says, putting his hands together in a prayer, “don’t tell anyone we’re here!”

Kairi pulls out her most charming smile and echoes, puppy eyes on full force, “Please, mister!”

Riku doesn’t say anything. He’s behind Sora, so he can’t see if he makes some kind of cute gesture to amplify the cuteness even more, but he _better_. If he gets punished another week without going out and they have to help him break out, Sora will... He will... 

He doesn’t know, but it better not happen.

Riku’s cousin, Shisui, smiles awkwardly. He’s an Uchiha, though, so even in his awkwardness he’s gorgeous. It’s only because Sora is accustomed to Riku’s minute expressions that he can read him at all.

“Don’t worry, kids,” he says after a moment. “I won’t tell anyone.”

“Except Itachi,” Riku retorts, amused. He’s probably smirking, the guy.

“Except Itachi.” Shisui’s lips twitch, and in a moment they’ve turned into a this-time-perfectly-amused smile. Ah, Sora’s heart is going to melt if this attractiveness keeps going. He can’t have a crush in Riku’s cousin, man. It’s forbidden by the bro code.

“Then please make sure Itachi doesn’t tell anyone,” Kairi, ever practical, says, pouting. “We don’t want Riku in trouble for associating with us.”

Something unreadable goes through Shisui’s eyes, but it’s only a moment. In the next, he’s full of good cheer again, and jokes, “Don’t worry, Itachi would do anything for his baby brother.” And t _hat_ doesn’t sound very ominous, no sir. “Anyways, I’ll leave you kids with all your watery amusement. Bye!”

And, like a show-off, he shunshins away. They return to their _watery amusement_ , this time more alert for intruders. No one else comes, but Sora can’t get that brief interaction out of his mind. It was, he knows after a long search for the word, foreboding. And he doesn’t know why; it could be because of the awkwardness or because of the quick escape, but he won’t ever know for certain. 

To get like that from talking to some kids… Uchihas --- what a weird clan.

Invoking their Keyblades isn’t much work.

Sora doesn’t know why they have put it off for so long. ...Okay, okay, he does --- it’s because they were scared they wouldn’t succeed and didn’t want to confirm they couldn’t invoke their beloved weapons. They should have faced their fears earlier, though, because nothing beats the familiar feeling of your fingers slowly curling around the Keyblade, of the air swishing as you swing it around.

Sora bursts out laughing from sheer mirth, and falls to the grass below. He laughs a bit more as it tickles his cheeks, his chin. Hugging his Keyblade, he rolls around to brush his chin against Riku’s and grin at him. Riku, for once in his life, grins back, blue eyes crinkling and shining and being beautiful.

They stare into each other’s eyes for a small eternity, until Kairi breaks it by jumping into them.

“Oof,” Sora says, huffing and enveloping Kairi with his arms. She snickers and returns the hug. Riku, as to not feel left out, crushes them both with his ripped arms. “Oof!”

They remain in that position for who knows how long, enveloped by a comfortable silence and basking in their glowing success. At least, until Riku, ever the party pooper, spoke, “You know round weapons made to fight shadows aren’t the best things for ninjas, right?”

“Who cares,” says Kairi, hugging her Keyblade and pouting like a particularly petulant child. “These are _ours_.”

Sora manages to shrug under the pile of bones. “You never know when a hidden weapon who can’t be taken off us will be useful. We can always slam someone on the head with them and knock them out.”

“Eh,” Riku says, and closes his eyes. “Guess you’re right.”

And with that, they return to the silence until night falls, and they have to walk home.

“Hey, you know about that weird thing in your stomach?” Kairi says one day, eyes skimming through the gigantic book in her hands. Her mouth is lifted in that curious smirk Sora’s seen a thousand times before, though, which means this is 1) important or 2) fun.

“Yeah,” he says, tip-toeing closer. Sora had discovered it when practising with chakra and everyone he asked refused to explain what it was about. After the third _shut up, brat!_ , he learnt his lesson, and so the thing fell to the wayside.“Yeah, I do. What about it?”

Kairi taps the book and hums. _Sealing for passionate academy students!_ , it says in cheesy typography. “Come closer.”

Sora does; he walks until his knee is brushing Kairi’s shoulder. He looks at the page, blinks, and blinks again when it doesn’t change. It remains the same, even after the fourth blink, and so Sora drawls, “ _Huh_.”

“Huh, indeed,” Kairi says, smirk growing. Her eyes are almost drinking the page.

The exact same thing on Sora’s stomach ---- a seal, apparently --- lays there, doodled in a margin of the page. _I wonder who’ll find this_ , is written next to it in perfect calligraphy. _My love taught it to me. Hopefully, I can watch whoever reads this becoming the next sealing master. You can do it!_ There is an inordinate amount of hearts and stars drawn around it, even in between letters. Maybe it’s a bit hypocritical of Sora to think this but… how juvenile.

There’s no sealing master in Konoha, they discover after a few days of frantic investigation. The closest thing is someone named Jiraiya (Kairi’s eyes shine as they go over the name), but he’s not really in Konoha, not anymore. The sealing art is sadly obscured everywhere --- the only reason Kairi found that book appears to be a pathetic attempt to convince a child to become Konoha’s expert.

“Don’t you have better things to do?” Riku says on day four, after they’ve been five hours searching in the damn library. Sun feels like a myth at that point. “I don’t think you’re going to find anymore.”

They sigh and resist, but eventually, they’re forced to admit Riku’s right and abandon their endeavour. His stomach itches though --- they were _so_ close to finding the truth about it!

“Sakura, I swear to God, if you don’t stop associating with that boy...”

Kairi presses her hands firmly together and rests them on her lap. Her expression is demure, but surely her eyes shine with stubborness. There’s no way she’ll leave Sora, not even for this man, no matter how much she appreciates his efforts as a single parent. Appreciates, that’s the keyboard.

She doesn’t love him, though. That feeling is reserved for her boys.

Kairi knows associating with Sora, for some awful reason, has brought problems to her father. His shop doesn’t sell as much, and the villagers look at him with pity every time he goes by. Every birthday, she gets less and less presents. Money is hard to come by on these times, and, one day, her father is going to snap.

She’s ready for it --- no matter how her stomach churns, she won’t budge an inch.

Her father must have seen it in her eyes, because he closes his own, ages a few years in a few seconds, and leaves the room.

“Little brother.”

Riku cracks one open to see Itachi going into his room. He hasn’t knocked, because Itachi never does when he has something serious to speak about, but he’s still as polite as ever in the rest of things: he doesn’t touch Riku’s things or look judgemental at all his stuff being spread through the floor (he only keeps his room like that to anger his father). 

Riku mentally sighs. Itachi only ever has one serious topic to speak with him: Sora.

“Itachi,” he says. Hopefully, he can cut this short. “If you’re here to tell me indirectly to stop hanging out with Sora---”

“Little brother.” Itachi interrupts him without a change in his expression. Riku had never thought he would meet anyone with less social skills than him until he was reborn in this clan, with him as his older brother. “Shisui told me you brought your friends into the compound again.”

“Yeah,” he answers, and raises his eyebrows as condescendingly as he can. “So what?”

“Is that really necessary? You’re only risking Father’s ire.” ...He doesn’t need to sound so sad about it. Although on the other hand, Itachi’s sad about everything, especially lately. But every time Riku tries to bring up the topic, he gets poked on the forehead and receives no answer, so he can’t do anything about it.

“Fuck Father. We just wanted to have a little fun in the water. They weren’t spying so there’s no problem with bringing them here.”

Itachi purses his lips, obvious in his disapproval. He doesn’t say anything else, though, so Riku closes his eyes again and sinks into his bed. Eventually, Itachi leaves the room. Silently, of course, so Riku doesn’t find out until he opens his eyes half an hour later.

Really, Riku loves Itachi as much as he can love someone who’s not from his old life, but man is he weird.

Of course, Sora and Kairi occasionally come over to enjoy the river, because Riku’s not going to let himself be ordered around. His brother has insisted on a few more occasions on it, and even Shisui has warned him off with an unusually grim expression on his face. It only makes Riku more eager to invite them over.

Maybe that’s the reason why a body falls from the sky on them a week later. That probably gave them bad karma. Riku should learn a lesson about this, but honestly, he probably won’t.

“What the fuck,” says Kairi, eloquently, as the body splashes against the water.

Riku, for his part, remains silent. The body is Shisui, and the water around him is bleeding red. He’s still alive, though unconscious, but with every breath he takes, his face constricts in pain. 

He’s missing his eyes.

Suddenly, Riku’s lungs constrict and his larynx closes and he can’t breathe. Is there a killer here? Have they seen three children discovering the corpse? Are they waiting for them to climb the cliff to push them down again?

Time slows down and stops and he can only focus on his nicest cousin floating in a river of blood, dead---

“He’s not dead yet,” Sora says, quiet, solemn. His hand takes Riku’s, and soon Kairi’s is on his other. Riku breathes deeply. “He’s not death yet, but he’ll be if we don’t take him to a hospital.”

There’s no need for any words after that. They just trade silent glances and, at the exact same time, burst into movement. Kairi picks Shisui’s legs, Sora the arms, and Riku the torso, and they _sprint_.

Five hours later, Shisui wakes up. 

The room is full of people --- every Uchiha who saw them on the way to the hospital has demanded to be let into the Uchiha’s silver boy room. Of course, there were people missing (Riku’s brother and father amongst them), but even so, the room’s full to the brim.

Sora and Kairi have managed to stay, in first row no less, thanks to a mixture of Kairi’s puppy eyes,, Riku’s insistence, and Sora’s blending into the crowd for once in his life. The Uchihas are so focused on Shisui’s situation they don’t have time to call him slurs, and Sora is humiliatingly grateful for it.

Anyways, they’re in first row, which means that, even in a room full of alert ninjas, they’re the first to notice Shisui’s eyes fluttering open. _Well_ , Sora thinks awkwardly, ‘ _eyes’_ . _More like eyelids._

Only when his mouth is parted, head whirling around the room in disbelief, does everyone start to gasp and cry and heave relieved sighs. But Shisui, for his part, doesn’t seem very happy, all pinched brow and tense fingers.

After his head has been pointed to where Riku, Kairi and him are for an alarmingly long time, he purses his lips, turns his head to the ceiling and throws his arm over his face, as if to shield it from the world. Which, okay? He’s alive, he should be happy, not… this.

“Shit,” he whispers, voice teary and mouth pulling down. It’s quiet, small, and the rest of the room is too preoccupied with cheering to notice it. Sora does, Kairi does and Riku does, though, even if they aren’t meant to. They trade worried glances and don’t comment on it. Shisui doesn’t seem to want them to.

“Itachi…” Riku’s voice is calm through his fear. “What’s happened here?”

Fugaku lays dead at his feet, Mikoto just under him, and countless of others just outside of the house. Even though this is not the first time he’s been surrounded by corpses, the disgusting smell coils in his nose and he has to hold back his vomit. His stomach has learnt acrobatics in the past fifteen minutes, and is enjoying this demonstrations. 

Riku dares to raise his eyes a little --- just a little, enough to see the hilt of Itachi’s blade reflected in the moonlight, a drop of blood dripping to the floor. What happened here? Hah, what a dumb question. It’s obvious: Itachi has just massacred the entire clan, and Riku is next.

He doesn’t shudder, because death doesn’t scare him, not anymore, but his next breath is shaky.

“Look at me, little brother,” Itachi says after a moment of silence. His voice is so calm, so normal, Riku is almost tempted to look. Only the thirty-seventh unspoken rule of shinobi stops him: _you do_ not _look at an Uchiha in the eyes_ . _Even if you yourself are an Uchiha._

His eyes remain firmly locked on the sword.

Before he has a chance to react, a hand holds his chin softly, almost a caress, and gentle, gentle, gentle, starts to raise it. Riku struggles against it, but despite its softness, the grip is strong and in the next blink, he’s staring into red and black and spinning eyes.

He screams.

_Shit, indeed_ , is Sora’s first thought when he hears the news, and then comes _What the fuck is Riku okay Itachi seemed like a nice person what the fuck what the fuck what the fuck what do you mean massacre what_ \---

“Sora,” Kairi hisses, digging her nails into his arm. They’re both shaking. “Sora. We have to go to the hospital. We have to get to the hospital _now_.” 

Sora can’t speak, his throat is too closed up for that, so he settles for running and pushing people until they're here. The traject lasts a second and an eternity at the same time, but the important thing’s they’re there. They’re there they’re there they’re there.

After pressing the nurse in reception to give them the number of Riku’s room, they hurry and push more people around and almost get thrown out of the hospital and, in thirty seconds, they slid that same room’s door open.

What greets them inside is - a sight.

Riku lays in a bed. That’s strange enough, because Riku is always the first of the trio to wake up, but that’s not the only thing that’s wrong in the image --- Riku’s pale and eerily still. His face is scrunched up in pain, and his hands clench the blankets like lifeline.

Blood slides through his arm from where Kairi is digging in her nails. Sora’s stomach constricts, and it takes his entire willpower not to puke right there right then. Riku… It’s almost like a sin, to see him like this.

When it’s too much to bear, Sora takes his eyes away, and - and -

“Shouldn’t you be in your room?” he calls out weakly to Shisui, who’s covered in bandages from head to toe and staring at Riku like he’s seen a ghost. Well, not really staring, because he’s blind, but skilled ninjas sense chakra, which is what he’s doing.

He doesn’t raise his eyes to meet Sora’s, gives no sign he’s heard him. Maybe he hasn’t --- his breathing is ragged and his hands are trembling. The news of the massacre can’t have been good for him either.

Sora doesn’t press for an answer, and so they stand there, enveloped in a strange sort of silence, occasionally broken by crying or hyperventilating or a nurse futilely trying to kick them out.

Time passes slowly, but, after three days, five hours, nineteen minutes and one second (they’ve counted), Riku wakes up.

It’s an improvement, yes, and Sora is so happy he could cry, but it’s also a really sad affair, especially when you compare it to Shisui’s awakening. Only Sora and Kairi are there (Shisui is asleep in his own room, after a nurse managed to sedate him), and the contrast, the contrast with this silence and that overwhelming noise, is evident.

Riku’s eyes are empty. It has been a long time since Sora’s seen them like that --- just that time when he was evil, but not really because he was just lonely and ambitious and, well, empty. Sora’s heart breaks, and Kairi's hand presses over her mouth.

He looks at his hands, for lack of a better thing to do (he can’t look at Riku he can’t look at Riku for one second more or - or - ).They’re shaking.

When he looks up again, Riku is staring right at him, right through him. He goes still --- for some reason, it feels like if he moves, everything’s gonna collapse, the world's going to split into two and there’s no way he can stop that from happening. He holds his breath. The ticking of the clock is a distant sound.

Finally, Riku’s face crumples and he closes his eyes tightly, and that’s all it takes for Sora and Kairi to break into a run and envelop him into a crushing hug. Sora’s fingers dig into Riku’s gown, brushing with Kairi’s on the way, and, after a beat, Riku returns the hug so fiercely he leaves them without air.

Neither of them cry, because they are far too old and jaded and cowardly for that, but they stay in that position, weak and vulnerable and reassured by it, until they hear someone slide the door open.

“Sasu - R-Riku, you’re… awake,” breathes Shisui, in that raspy voice of his. He pauses, probably noticing them both there, and his face does something weird. After a pause, he says, “I’ll. Go call the nurses.”

And he leaves do just that, crutches clacking against the floor.

With the moment broken, the hug is broken too, but that doesn’t mean they move away from each other. His back hurts and his cheeks are damp, but it almost doesn’t register in his mind, which is all _Riku Riku Riku how is Riku I should ask him what happened Riku Riku Riku_.

“What… happened?” That’s Kairi, who has always been the most practical out of the three of them. Of course, they already know the general situation, thanks to Kairi’s spy network and the overall Konoha rumour mill, but they want to hear it from Riku himself. If he wants to, of course. They’re not going to force him.

But there’s no need for that. Without opening his eyes, Riku tells them what happened, in gruesome detail.

The nurses burst in before Sora can say anything more than, “Oh.”

It’s a lot of time before they can see Riku again. Too much. Too much too much too much. Then again, after this, even five seconds would be too much, but still. Riku shouldn’t be alone, and they shouldn’t be apart from Riku. He’s their impulse control!

They --- the government --- have to interrogate him about the massacre, Riku tells them over warm ramen, courtesy of Teuchi, at Sora’s small apartment. It’s a bit stupid, ‘cause what would Riku know the forensic scientists don’t, but it’s no use wondering about it. Riku’s here, with them, and that’s what matters.

“You can stay here as long as you want,” Sora tells him when there’s a lull in the conversation. “And Shisui, too, if he doesn’t want to stay in the compound.”

“Who would want to stay in this micro apartment?” Riku says, tone dripping with sarcasm, but the way he looks down to his laps, his mouth curves into a slight smile, obviously conveys his thanks.

Sora bops his nose. “You, apparently.”

Kairi snickers at Riku’s ruffled glower.

Shisui refuses to move into his apartment, much to Sora’s disappointment. Shisui’s cool, and it would have been nice, sharing his home with him. It would be like having an older brother, although, then again, he sees Shisui when he’s on the village often enough, so there’s not much difference.

He’s not in the village a lot, sadly. The second he has been discharged, Shisui takes up A- and S-rank missions back to back, and the time he spends in the village is basically null. On the one hand, that means he’s with Riku a lot. On the other hand, that can’t be a healthy coping mechanism, but Sora’s probably not the right person to bring it up. 

The days Shisui’s here are the only ones Riku doesn’t spend at his. He wants to make his cousin company, he explains, and his expression isn’t sad but, somehow, sadness radiates off him anyways. 

People start to forget the massacre, but they don’t. Not only because Riku’s the main witness of it, but because Itachi was a pacifist and Shisui is hiding something and the pieces don’t really add up. There’s something missing here --- something very, very important.

It’s no use wondering about it without ways to gather information, though, so they leave the topic alone. For now.

Sora wakes up when someone knocks on the door and immediately latches onto the sleeping Riku. He grunts but otherwise doesn’t move, and he’s too cute for Sora to wake him up, so Sora is left with this… situation alone. Who is knocking at his door at this hour? It’s too soon for Teuchi to drop his free ramen by, but really, who can it be? Please, life, don’t be cruel to -

The door creaks open. Sora’s heart stops. 

There are two reasons as to why the door has opened: 1) Kairi, who has the key, has seen fit to pay them a visit at three in the morning, or, and hopefully this isn’t it, 2) someone very proficient with locks has come for Sora. And not for good things.

He prays. Please, world. _Please_.

Kairi’s silhouette appears under the doorframe of his room and Sora exhales. Phew, saved.

...Wait.

Is she crying?

As she steps into the room, it becomes clear that yes, she is certainly crying. Sora chokes down all the fury that has suddenly risen in him, at least enough to ask with a level voice, “What happened, Kairi?”

Well, okay, maybe it sounds like a threat, but he can’t help it. When his best friend cries, someone dies. That’s them rules. Nothing compared to what Riku would do were he awake --- will do, once Sora tells him about this.

There’s a long moment of silence. Just when Sora is about to repeat the question, she manages to mutter, “My father has just disowned me.”

“What?” he says, sharply, in a higher pitch than his normal one. Riku shifts, but doesn’t wake up. Gulping, he asks, “What happened?” even though he already has an idea. Kairi’s father wouldn’t be the first one to be affected by the whispers about him…

Kairi, ever the intuitor, says, “It’s not your fault.”

The words alleviate his churning stomach, but not that sour taste in his mouth. Kairi’s too kind, to try to comfort him when she’s the one obviously hurting. He forces out a smile. There’s no need to burden her right now.

He opens his arms and wordlessly envelops her in a tight hug, caressing her hair as she weeps. Tomorrow, her father will be alive, but just because Kairi would cry more if he were killed.

When she calms down, Sora kicks Riku’s leg, and he, with a sleepy grumple, makes room for Kairi. They lie down and, lulled by Riku’s soft breaths, Kairi soon falls asleep. He remains wide awake, though, both from adrenaline and fury.

Sora can’t help but watch her. There are tear tracks on her face and her expression isn’t as peaceful as it should be, all frowny and tense. His chest constricts, but he lets out a breath he’s been holding in since the door creaked open. Reluctantly, he drags his eyes away.

It’s a beautiful night. Sora spends it all staring at the ceiling, an anxious knot twisting his stomach.

“Have you heard…”

“...the Uchiha massacre…”

“...jynxed.”

“And that girl --- kicked out…”

“Poor parents.”

“Poor kids.”

Even though he tries not to think about anything, the truth is it’s been a long night, and his mind, just as his stomach did earlier, goes in circles. He tries to squash down every feeling of worthlessness, but soon it becomes too much and his head is pounding with _monster, monster, monster_.

When he goes home, the first thing he does --- after dropping the groceries on the small kitchen table, of course --- is try to drown himself with his pillow. He doesn’t scream, he doesn’t move, he just - breathes.

An undetermined amount of time passes, and he hears the door creaking with Kairi’s heavy steps. They stop when she sees him, Sora knows, even though his face is still smashed on the pillow. 

He can imagine her clearly, though. Lips pursed, eyebrows knitted together, eyes darkened. She’s probably worried about him, even though she’s just been disowned and has better things to worry about, better things than him---

“I will be hokage,” she says, so out of nowhere Sora actually lifts his head to watch her.

And yeah, it’s as he thought --- pursed lips, knitted eyebrows, all worried. His posture is tense, tired, and aggressive. There’s one thing, though, just one thing, that doesn’t fit in with his imagination: the eyes.

Her eyes, man, her eyes. They aren’t darkened, or even dimmed, no --- they are _glowing_. There’s a fire burning behind them, burning with passion and fury and righteousness and it’s amazing, how she’s moved on from her abandonment so soon. That’s Kairi for you, he guesses, admiration for her renewed.

“What?” He frowns, though, because why are those eyes for? His voice is _so_ rough, and he hasn’t even been crying. He touches his cheeks, to make sure, but no, he’s all clean and dry. Raspy throat, though.

She raises an eyebrow. “You heard me.”

They have a stare-off, if only because Sora doesn’t really know what to answer to that, until Kairi nods and walks to the kitchen. Seconds later, the noise of the faucet comes from the room.

Sora sighs and stares at the dirty living room ceiling. Sometimes, Kairi is _so_ weird.

Boar. Horse. Tiger.

“Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!”

A small flame flies out of Riku’s mouth, but dissipates pitifully between one blink and the other. 

He frowns and stares at his fingers. After one month practicing the damn technique, the flame doesn’t get bigger or remains longer in the living world, and it’s the first time a technique seems so difficult. True, he’s never tried a chakra technique before but usually, a week of hardcore training, and that’s it. Is there something wrong with him? With this body?

He shakes his head. It doesn’t matter now --- if it’s not in an month, he’ll get it in a year, and if not, in ten. The important thing is he’ll learn the damn jutsu, even if it’s the last thing he does.

“Don’t you think you’re overdoing it a bit?” Riku doesn’t need to turn around to know it’s Sora who’s spoken, even though he certainly wasn’t here thirty seconds ago. The brat’s gotten quick. “I mean… you’ve been at it for four hours.”

“No. I’ll keep going.”

There’s a sigh at his back, and a rustle of grass. Sora must’ve sat down to watch him.

No matter. Boar. Horse. Tiger.

Boar. Horse. Tiger.

Boar. Horse. Tiger.

Boar. Horse. Ti---

“Wait.” Riku waits, fingers pressed together in the middle of the seal. He purses his lips. What does Sora want now? Doesn’t he see he’s _training_? He always reaches out to him in the most inconvenient moments, and Riku doesn’t have the heart to refuse him. “Don’t you feel… weird?”

His fingers are all in the right place, as are his arms and legs and entire everything. Riku taps his foot impatiently against the floor. “No. All’s in order.”

A hand sets on his shoulder, and Riku finally turns around to look into Sora’s wondersome sea-blue eyes, full of mixed feelings: worry, wariness, wry amusement... After so much time staring at them, Riku’s memorised them all. 

“I mean,” he says, and Riku’s eyes zero on his lips. He sees rather than hears the next words, “about your chakra.”

Riku pumps chakra in his arms, but no --- it’s as sluggish and sticky as always. Sora’s hand slides from his shoulder to biceps, where he had applied the chakra to, and that zone burns. Thankfully, Riku’s face doesn’t, although it’s a close thing. 

Expression perfectly schooled, Riku drags his eyes away from Sora’s lips to his eyes --- well, his eyelids. Having closed his eyes mean Riku can’t stare at them, no matter how much he kind of wants to. “No, it’s the same as always.”

Sora hums and his clutch over Riku’s arm tightens. “Do it again, please.”

Riku obliges.

“Again.”

Riku obliges.

“Again.”

Riku obliges.

After a few minutes at it, Sora finally opens his eyes, and the worry in them has won over all the rest of emotions. His eyes are still sea blue and mesmerizing, and Riku can’t help but get lost in them. 

“Bad news?” he says, not as worried as he should be. All his emotions have been sucked away by the moment.

Sora nods, lips set into a thin line. “Bad news. You - have a bit of a chakra problem.”

It’s a long explanation, full of the medical jargon Sora’s been studying lately, but the important thing is - Riku has a big problem with ninjutsu. His chakra doesn’t flow as quick as it needs, and that’s why his jutsus are ridiculously slow and/or weak. As far as Sora knows, there isn’t any cure, and, as the one of the last Uchiha, there’s no way Riku’s going to the hospital to get experimented on. Not after being probed and probed for two weeks straight.

“...I’ll - try to find a cure,” Sora says when he’s finished explaining everything. “No, I - I’ll find it, I swear.”

As much as the intention is moving… “Don’t bother.” Riku rolls a shoulder, and the other. “I have no time to waste---”

“But---”

“---and you haven’t, either. I’ll focus on taijutsu and that’s it”

And that’s it.

The next morning catches Riku cracking open a book --- or, well, a scroll. Time to start practising the Uchiha Secret Taijutsu Style.

Kairi watches. And then she watches some more.

People in Konoha are so… different from each other. One has silver hair, another wears a green spandex, another walks thirteen dogs without a care in the world, that woman down the street has a hairstyle taller than her own body...

In the same vein, though, they’re also the same --- subservient to a dictatorial regime, and - not exactly happy, but satisfied. They’re not free, but they don’t know it --- or maybe they do, and lie to themselves. The metal leaf glints off their forehead every time they step into the street, and Kairi feels sick.

She leans against the bench and sighs, but her eyes don’t leave the people. These are her future friends, allies, the people she will rule as a Hokage. Even though some are… untasteful (and here, her mind goes to the civilians who make Sora suffer, although the adjective is too kind for them), she has to treat them all as equals. If she wants them to accept her changes, at least.

And that includes getting to know them. All of them --- not just the little children, the old people and the social pariahs, even though they’re usually the nicest. Sigh.

Her eyes scan the crowd once more. Shapes and forms blur together, and while she has to know them sooner or later, she’d rather her first ninja friend be someone special. Someone…

A boy with a braid passes by her, running after the guy with the green spandex she saw pass seconds earlier. They lock eyes, and for a second, all Kairi can see are bushy eyebrows and burning determination.

...like that.

She gets up from her seat and calls out, “Hey, boy, wait!”

The boy stumbles, but he doesn’t stop. Kairi grunts and dashes after him. Thank God all that morning training with her boys she hasn’t skipped, because wow does that boy run.

It’s not until her feet pound from running that she manages to grab his shoulder. The boy really stops this time, and - his confused frown is the _cutest_! After Sora’s, of course, because no one can trump Sora in cuteness. Not when he’s in his ten-year-old body.

“Do you need something, miss?” he says, voice aggrieved but polite. Kairi wonders why, until it clicks. Oh, he’s probably disappointed about having been interrupted from his trailing after the green ninja.

His big, bug-like eyes are so full of earnestness Kairi can’t manipulate him into liking her. She would feel bad. So she has to honestly help him and pray for the better. “Can I help you look for…” Her gaze slides to the accelerating green dot, fading into the distance, “ _him_?”

Shei must have flipped a switch because, between one blink and another, the sky has gone from a healthy blue to a potent orange, and the sun cartoonishly peers through the horizon. It’s an ugly sunset, but it’s full of… Emotion. Yeah. Emotion, unspecified and in all caps.

“That---” The boy’s voice makes her tear her eyes away from the weirdness of the scenery and set them on this weirdness of a person. “---would be GREAT!”

Kairi grins and holds out her hand. It’s meant for taking, but the way the boy high fives it is also fine. With that, they start to run. Again. (And again: thank you, leg day.)

“So, what’s your name?” she says on the thirtieth second of running, because silence is kind of Riku’s forte, not hers. As everyone from the Destiny Islands said, knowing someone’s name is the first step to be friends.

“Rock Lee!” he gasps in between breaths. His determined eyes don’t waver from his target, but hers do. “And yours, youthful flower?”

...Kairi’s not going to opine about that nickname. No sir. “Kairi.” No surname, not anymore.

Rock Lee nods, and her eyes return to the man they’ve been chasing for the good part of the afternoon. He’s closer, but it’s still at least an hour of running away. If she hadn’t wanted to save air, she would have sighed, but as it was, she satisfies herself with frowning.

At least, if this keeps up, she will win against Riku and Sora on their next race.

They catch up with Gai, the person they’re following, when he stops to help an old granny with her groceries while doing a handstand. Kairi, who has been all evening surrounded by weirdness, doesn’t even blink.

She just nods and introduces herself when the man asks enthusiastically for her name, and smiles during his and Lee’s entire conversation. Turns out, this man is Lee’s sensei (no surprise there --- with the eyebrows, one would think they were related), and chasing him all day was part of his training routine.

By the time they have stopped talking, night has already fallen. Lee excuses himself, saying that his mom will worry, and runs home --- not before extracting a promise from her to meet again, all earnest and cute.

Kairi walks home smiling. What a good start to her plan to befriend the world, really.

Sora has failed the graduation exam. 

The sky is clear, and all the children, all these new ninja, hurry to tell their parents or caretakers or friends their happy news. A lone cloud drifts just above Sora’s head, shadowing just the ares he’s sitting in. He sighs for the thousandth time of the day, and kicks the floor to impulsate his swing.

Kick.

Kick. 

Kick.

He has failed the graduation exam.

Kick. 

Kick.

Kick.

He grits his teeth and tightens his grip on the rope. Damn Mizuki damn Mizuki damn Mizuki. Why does he have the bad luck to have him as a teacher? He knew he was a cheating asshole, but to come to the point of altering his scores when Iruka wasn’t looking… There has to be a special kind of grudge for that. And they’ve never spoken so what the hell has he done?

KICK!

“Soraaaa,” Kairi says, walking out of the Academy building, headband in hand. Behind her, Riku carries his inside his pocket, metal part hanging out of it. Their steps are slow, lazy, and Sora kind of wants them to both arrive quickly and arrive never.

“Kairiiiiiii,” he says, eyes still fixating on the drifting cloud. 

Eventually, the steps stop, right before his swing. Sora exhales through his nose. How to drop the news, how to drop the news… And avoid they take revenge for him, after all. If someone’s going to ruin Mizuki’s life, it’s him. Not that he’s going to do it (probably), but dreaming is nice.

“Did you… fail?” Kairi says, very slowly. Sora tenses --- it’s been a long time since he’s heard her like that, since… he doesn’t want to think about it. 

“I… yes, yes I did.”

Kairi opens her mouth, but Riku grabs her hand before she starts to analyse the situation terrifyingly accurately for not being there. He rubs soothing circles on her hand. She closes her mouth with a snap, and Riku takes advantage to speak,

“Do you want us to break his face?” 

Sora shakes his head. “Don’t worry, I’ll do it myself.” Again: maybe.

Even though the kids around them scream, they settle in a silence, not quite awkward, but not comfortable either. It’s obvious the same question hangs around the three of them, heavy and suffocating at the same time. They won’t be in a team together, so... what now? All their plans have vanished, as if they never were there in the first place.

Thankfully, just as Mizuki ruins it, Mizuki ends up solving it. 

“Pssst. Naru - er, Sora,” he says, saccharine-sweet, from behind a tree. His head peers out, and his smile is so fake it actually hurts, right here, in Sora’s chest. When he notices he’s got Sora’s attention, it gets wider. And faker. Ugh. “Come here, please. Alone.”

Kairi, Riku and Sora exchange glances and raised eyebrows, the same thing running through their minds. _This is obviously a trap_.

Kairi tilts her head. _What do you want to do?_

 _Is this man dumb?_ Riku interjects with a frown. His arms are closed, but he doesn’t seem even a little bothered. In fact, he seems… quite eager. _Does he want us to kick his ass?_

Sora shrugs, rolls his shoulders. _I don’t know. And - what the hell, why not? I’ll go. Don’t eat my dinner._

And with that silently communicated, Sora turns around, and walks towards the smirking man. Seriously, the way his eyes darken… Can he be any more suspicious? Even if Sora were a real kid, he would have probably intuited something is on. Ninja are so weird sometimes. So obvious.

Kairi and Riku walk off, and Sora ends up alone with a very, very suspicious man. 

“Do you need something, Mizuki-sensei?” he says, trying not to let resentment show in his voice. But he can’t help but think it --- this asshole failed him unfairly, after all. Really, Sora only did two clones more than asked for and - and -

Breathe, Sora, breathe. You’re in front of people. In front of him.

“Hm, yes, I certainly need something,” he says, eyes glinting. Sora keeps his cheerful, silly grin fixated on his face, even as his insides twist with fury and bitterness. The longer Mizuki speaks, the colder he feels, and let it be said Mizuki speaks a lot. 

Even so, when Mizuki finished speaking (he’s said something about stealing a scroll from the hokage or something, and does he think Sora won’t notice he’s committing treason?) and asks Sora, “Okay?”, in a way that leaves it clear it’s not okay to refuse. Sora nods unhesitantly. He has nothing to do tonight, and even if this doesn’t end up amounting to anything, at least it will be fun.

Things derail really quickly after that. It’s almost a work of art.

Sora actually steals from under the hokage’s nose, thanks to a bit of ingenuity, a shitton of luck and break-the-chart levels of negligence. The scroll is big, bulky, and he carries it to a clearing in a forest, where he can’t resist opening it and jotting down on his arm all the techniques in there. While he’s writing the last jutsu, Shisui arrives.

“What are you doing, Sora?” he asks, lips twitching. He might be a ninja, but around the three of them, Shisui doesn’t bother to hide his thoughts --- they’re written clearly on his dimples: _I know exactly what happened and I find it hilarious you’ve stolen that but sadly, and I mean_ really _sadly, I have to stop you._

“Um…” Sora kicks the floor, and his lower lip sticks out. “Don’t be mad, Shisui! Mizuki told me to…”

“Hahaha, he did what?”

Kunai come flying out of nowhere, and Shisui effortlessly picks Sora up by the scruff of his neck and dodges, all in the span of one thousandth of a nanosecond (maybe that’s an exaggeration). Sora doesn’t even gasp --- Shisui is so mother henny, has done the same so many times that it’s stopped being surprising.

Slowly, Shisui sets Sora down again. When his feet clack against the floor, the tension skyrockets, as if someone has switched it on. Sharingan red eyes lock on black ones, and Sora is left standing awkwardly in the middle. Considering this is about him, that’s a little bit rude, but it feels even ruder to let them know how rude they’re being. Rude.

“What the hell, Mizuki,” says Shisui, no longer smiling. “Treason? That’s low.”

“Fuck you, Shisui.” Mizuki glares, shoulders coiling like a snake. It’s amazing how fast he’s dropped the nice act, and Sora can't help but clap around the scroll. Mizuki’s glare snaps to him and he snarls, “What the fuck are you clapping for, you fox brat.”

Sora’s claps don’t even waver, even as everything snaps together in his head --- the seal, a fox - _the_ fox, him. “I just felt like being the center of attention.”

Mizuki growls and _lunges_ \---

Or, well, he tries to. In between a second and the next, he disappears, shunshin’d away by Shisui. There’s an itch on his head that suspects what the asshole’s fate is, and it’s certainly not pretty, buuuuuuut… he refuses to think about it. Nope! He’ll focus on… that blade of grass! Yeah. Beautiful.

While he’s examining the longness of the blade, there’s the characteristic _swish!_ of the shunshin, and he looks to where Shisui is patting his pants, not a drop of blood on his clothes, but also not a Mizuki in his arms, so nothing conclusive. His smile is as sadly cheerful as ever.

For a moment, the question is on the tip of Sora’s tongue. Is the Nine-Tails really sealed inside of him? Is the weird seal in his stomach really caging something so dangerous? Is that why every common citizen hates him? The pieces fit so flawlessly it’s almost scary, but really, if that’s the answer --- if he holds yet another soul in his body… He doesn’t know what to think.

That’s on a moment, but in the next, the feeling vanishes and Shisui speaks. “So… failed, huh?”

Sora’s shoulders sag, and he pouts. “It was so not my fault, Shisui! Mizuki cheated to fail me!”

Shisui hums, shift his weight from one leg to the other. In that second of silence, it’s unavoidable to focus on the big bags under Shisui’s eyes. Sora heaves a mental sigh. Back to back missions again? Man, Konoha is really running him to the dirt. Three months without seeing Shisui and he comes back like this. This system clearly needs lots of changes.

“...see what I can do,” Shisui is saying. Blearily, Sora blinks at him, and before he can open his mouth to ask him to repeat, Shisui chuckles. “But better leave that for tomorrow, right? Come ‘ere, I’ll take you home.”

Sora drags his feet towards him. In a blink, he’s on his home, in front Riku and Kairi’s sleeping forms, trying not to puke on the floor (shunshins… they’re not the nicest on his body). He falls to his knees and can’t even muster up the will to lecture the hand ruffling his carefully unkempt hair or wave away the muttered “sorry”. 

Then, the hand leaves, and Sora is left alone with his unconcious best friends and his thoughts.

The clock ticks and tacks and ticks again. After hitting four in the morning, Sora gives up on sorting through everything alone and wakes Kairi and Riku up --- his thoughts are too asphyxiating for him to deal with them on his own, and Sora has always been good at getting help when he needs it. That’s one of his major strengths, after all.

“Mmmphg?” Kairi says around a yawn, at the same time Riku’s eyes crack open just a little bit, a tiny window to his soul. Heh, how poetic. The hour, it shows. “Wha’... wha’ d’you want, Sora? Comessssleep.” She pats the bed, without opening her eyes or even turning her head. 

“Sorry,” he says, not sorry at all. “It’s just…”

Kairi rolls her eyes. Riku’s breathing has evened out again, which, typical Riku, but man, can’t he listen for a moment? Just a moment, that’s not asking a lot.

Anyways, Sora pushies down his annoyance (it’s late, and Riku was never really awake in the first place, so it’s not his fault, Sora, don’t be so thorny) and continues, “I - probably know why everyone hates me.”

Kairi’s eyes snap open, and she rolls to face him with the force of a sledgehammer. Even through the darkness, her wide blue eyes _shine_ with curiosity. “What - how -when - _why_?” she splutters out, and reaches out to grab his hand. Heh, he really has caught her off guard if her feelings are so obvious.

With a small grin, Sora finds his place under the covers, and starts to tell her his day.

Sora isn’t an expert at mind-diving for nothing, and it’s relieving to find out he hasn’t lost his touch, even after all these years without speaking to intruders in his mind. Roxas and Ventus and Vanitas and all the other mind visitors haven’t accompanied him in this life, and honestly, it’s been a little lonely, without feeling them bicker every time he closed his eyes and concentrated.

The fall is slow, soothing, familiar, and, as always, it’s like he’s an unlucky leaf who has just fallen from his tree. With an slackened face, Sora watches the light of the mind-ceiling become smaller and smaller, until it disappears when his back touches the floor. His sluggy muscles aren’t quick to get him up, and less so to make him face the fox inside him.

Red eyes, bigger than his entire body, blink at him and then crink as the fox grins a mean grin, all teeth and no mirth. Only metal bars separate him from the giant animal (spirit?), but in face of such a size, it doesn’t look enough. Sora isn’t scared, but it feels as if he should be. He’s facing someone older than him by quite a few centuries, and someone who, by the looks of it, wants him dead.

“Why are you here, pathetic human?” it (she, he, they? He’ll go with it until it corrects him) say. The mental walls shake with the sound vibrations. Sora’s ears vibrate like a drum aftter it’s just been hit. “Step closer, and I’ll devour you alive.”

Sora’s lips quirk up on their own volition, and he finds himself saying, “You’re not the first - living being to have said that.”

The fox’s grin switches into a snarl so quickly it recoils Sora into waking up.

Slowly, he rolls his head towards the desk and yawns. There’s a Konoha headband laying there innocently, and doodled thumbs-up on a paper next to it. Without processing the information, Sora closes his eyes again, cuddles with his best friends, and falls asleep again, this time for real. 

“Kairi-san! Kaaaaaaaaairi-san!”

Kairi stops walking, and a smile blooms on her face. Reflexively, Sora smiles too, and he can see Riku relaxing out of the corner of his eye. If Kairi is smiling --- honest-smiling, not that thing she does when she’s angry and political --- then that means something good is happening. He holds back a yawn, as to not break the atmosphere.

“Yes, Lee?” she says, and they turn around to see a green boy sprinting towards them at speeds better reserved for predators. When he reaches them, this… character starts jogging on his place, burning eyes and moving spandex. Okay. He’s seen weirder things… probably.

“Kairi-san!” He clenches a fist. His legs don’t stop. He points at Kairi’s neck, where she’d reluctantly tied her hitai-ate his morning (and only because it was illegal not to wear them; if not, they’d have left them at home, on the back of his closet, and never looked back). “I wanted to wish you luck on this Youthful endeavour you’re about to embark on! Do not worry, you will do GREAT!”

“Thank you, Lee,” Kairi says, saccharine sweet and strangely honest. Her hand clasps his shoulder, and she repeats, forceful, as if the words had to be pulled out of her throat, “ _Thank you_.”

Lee nods, and clenches his fists again. A real, actual flame bursts out of them, and Sora takes a real, actual step back. Nope, definitely the weirdest person he’s ever seen. Riku, who doesn’t fear God or strange people, remains rooted in his place. 

Taking a big gulp of air, Lee opens his mouth, enough for a fist to fit in, and---

“LEE!” screams a brown-haired girl, hair fitted in two buns. She’s waving her arms like twenty meters away from them, but her voice carries as if she were here. “STOP BOTHERING THOSE POOR KIDS AND COME BACK HERE!”

Lee whips his head around and around again so fast it’s a wonder his neck doesn’t break. “Sorry, Kairi-san! It seems I must go!” he says, and sprints towards the girl. There’s real, actual smoke trailing after him. Apparently, that’s something he’s going to start thinking a lot, if this kid is Kairi’s friend.

The three of them are left in silence. Riku and Sora just watching the personification of a pure fountain of energy carve up the streets of Konoha, and Kairi probably waiting politely for them to get their higher brain functions going. Although they shouldn’t be so surprised --- Kairi knows everyone, and that includes this kinds of people.

Eventually, though, it becomes clear they’re going to be late, and Lee is already an obnoxious green dot on the horizon, and so they stop with the dramatics and continue their last walk towards the academy. He can’t wait to be on a team with them, all together!

Kakashi steps into the academy six hours late. 

A bit too much, even for him, but _hey_ , who’s going to blame him for not wanting to see some old ghosts? Not the hokage, not the advisors, and certainly not himself. Hm… Maybe Gai would, but Gai pesters him about everything anyways.

He slides the door open, and blinks when not a bit of something falls on his head; no chalk, no wood and no pencil case. Wow --- it’s the first team that doesn’t try to pull a prank on him. Who knew a deadlast could hold his prankster tendencies to try and make a good first impression? (Not that it will work, not when Kakashi is determined not to like them, but there’s the intention.)

He scans his new, temporary students, fearing the level of disaster he would be forced to deal with for a few hours. Having been a proud one-hour sensei for quite a few years, he knows --- _knows_ , down to his bones and other parts of his body --- how bad things can get. And this team has quite a lot of cans of worms to open. 

First comes the girl. Haruno Sakura, the disowned daughter of Haruno Kizashi and no-name Mebuki. Her disowning was food for gossip practically an entire month (until the daimyo got yet another wife), thanks to her being friends with the local jinchuuriki, so it’s no trouble to find any data about her. 

Ditzy but hard-working, say her teachers. Social butterfly, say her peers. Fruit of an infidelity, say her old neighbours. Friends with “the demon brat”, says everyone. All in all, a nice kid, but a misguided one, if you base your opinion on rumours. 

The ditzy part comes clear when he first sees her doodling in her desk with her tongue sticking out. She gives no signs of having noticed him, unless one counted the way her eyes flickered to him for a thousandth of a second. 

Passable, but no more than that.

He looks at Uchiha Sasuke next. Courtesy of Shisui, Kakashi hasn’t been able to dig too much into him, but he knows enough. His silver hair falls like a cascade on his shoulders and slides though his back, marking him as the obvious result of another infidelity (what a coincidence… maybe). His blue eyes pierce through Kakashi, and the left one twitches, obviously annoyed with his lateness.

How cute.

Uzumaki Naruto, his late sensei’s son, comes last. Having watched him when he was a kid, Kakashi already has his features engraved on his mind: brown-haired, chubby-faced, blue-eyed, sad-smiled, a deadlast and a social pariah. From what Kakashi knows, nothing much has changed, even with his two little friends here.

As much as Naruto has brownie points for being the source of unmeasurable guilt, that’s no excuse to be drowning the poor table with drool, nor for being sprawled all over it. Really, these kids today…

They are kind of horrendous. 

“Hello, my cute little students,” he says, crinking his eye. Sora startles awake, and Kakashi’s smile becomes a little more wooden. “Meet me in the roof,” he adds, and shunshins away. He briefly considers to make them track him but nah, that would be too much and he doesn’t want to lose a lot of time. He has memorial stones to be at.

Ten minutes later, it becomes clear that life doesn’t care about his wishes, because they stroll into the rooftop, their faces wearing the neutralest expressions Kakashi has ever seen on three preteens. It’s kind of amazing, really, the way they don’t emote any feeling but clearly give off annoyance.

Kakashi motions them to sit down and when they do, he claps his hands, mouth curving into a smile. “Well, my cute little students, we’re going to introduce themselves! Names, likes, dislikes, dreams… You know how it goes.”

All as one, their faces morph into condescension. Their thoughts are clear: _we already know each other, you idiot_ , but no mouth moves to bring the thought to life. Instead, Naruto shifts and begins,

“I’m Sora,” he starts, and Kakashi blinks. “I like the sea, I dislike jerks, and - I would like to be a medic.” That almost makes him wince. What a bad dream for the chakra-controlless Nine-Tails container, especially with him being a pariah and all that. 

Outwardly, Kakashi hums and points at Uchiha. “Next!”

“Riku.” Another weird name without a surname. Is this a new trend for teenagers? Is Kakashi already too old to be cool? Gai is going to be so disappointed. “I like swords, I dislike chakra, and my dream…” He averts his eyes and plays absentmindedly with the hem of his shirt. In spite of that show of insecurity, his next words are firm, “My dream is to keep my friends safe.”

Naruto and Sakura _awwww!_ at the same time, and Kakashi can’t stop a twinge of approval from blossoming. He squashes it in the next second, though --- no need to get attached and make this unnecessarily complicated. Camaraderie like this will be good for the Genin Corps.

Without waiting for Kakashi’s say-so, Sakura starts with his introduction. “I’m Kairi!” she says, and yeah, this is definitely a trend. Kakashi mentally schedules a funeral for his hipness. “I like Sora and Riku, I dislike egotism and dictatorships, and my dream is to be hokage.”

The last part is said with an innocent grin, but Kakashi doesn't miss the big words thrown in there. Where a thirteen-year-old has learnt that from, Kakashi has no idea, but he will keep it in mind. Really, the only reason Kakashi doesn’t report her to the Third is because he’s going to personally ruin their careers, so there’s no way that can become a problem.

He claps sunnily, getting up. “ _Well_ , we’re all very diverse people---”

“Aren’t you going to introduce yourself?” says the Uchiha, blue eyes boring into him. That’s twice today --- if he ever awakens the sharingan, he’s going to give his enemies heart-attacks without lifting a finger, because oh boy, what an intense stare.

“No,” he says, and smiles when the Uchiha’s eyes darken. “Anyways, as I was saying before you _rudely_ interrupted me, you need to be at Training Ground 7 tomorrow at six in the morning. Don’t have breakfast. Bye!”

And with that, he shunshins away, not leaving time for Naruto to formulate the question on his lips. No need to waste his time answering questions of brats he’s never going to see again after tomorrow, after all.

Their new teacher leaves in a blaze of leaves. It’s only then Sora notices the jerk hasn’t even told them his name. What an---

“What an asshole,” Riku says, unknowingly echoing his thoughts. Sora smiles and holds out his hand for a high five. Without hesitating, Riku reciprocates the gesture, and SLAP! go their hands. Ouch!, goes Sora, because Riku’s too strong for his poor brittle appendices.

Kairi’s eyes aren’t focused on them, and she isn’t smiling as she normally would after a cute show of friendship like a high five. Instead, her head is tilted away, and the only visible thing in her face is her pursed mouth, thanks to her bangs blocking her eyes. It’s been a while since he’s seen the thinking look on her, mostly because it’s been a long time since they’ve gone to the library together.

“Is something the matter, Kairi?” Sora says, cheer of the moment evaporated. A serious Kairi is practically a notice the world will end if left unchecked. And that means they’ll have to check it, and that’s kind of a pain.

Kairi sighs and looks at them. “Hatake Kakashi,” she says, and Sora blinks. What? “That was our teacher’s name.” Sora is about to speak ( _don’t say that like I know who that is_ ), but then she lifts her hand with a slight wry smile. “I know you don’t know who that is, but --- you remember Lee? The boy from this morning? Kakashi is his sensei’s rival.”

“Okay,” Riku says, “so?”

“So let me finish!” Kairi snaps, a mock sneer blooming on her face. She maintains it one, two seconds, and then it morphs into a little smile. “Okay, so he’s known for never passing any team.” Passing? “Yes, passing.” God, Kairi’s a psychic. “Lee’s told me there’s another exam to really decide if we’ll be genin or not. I’m guessing that’s what we’ll do tomorrow.”

“Well’, we’ll be the first to pass then,” Riku says, not looking at them. He hesitates. “Together, nothing can stop us.”

Kairi and Sora _awwwww!_ once again, and Sora slides an arm around Riku’s shoulders. He can’t stop the silly grin that blooms on his face, but, then again, it’s not that he tries. “You’re being way too adorable today, you know? What a casanova.”

Riku doesn’t answer, but ohohoho? Is that red he sees on his cheeks? Ohohohoho, Sora will never let him live this down!

Before he can tease him to death, though, Kairi intervenes and yes!, this time she’s grinning. A grinning Kairi means that they won’t have to save the world, because it’ll do well on it’s own. (That’s why she doesn’t honest-grin much.) “Riku’s right, though. We just have to find out what kind of test he’ll give us, and then everything will be easy.”

Oh, Kairi’s specialty: finding out things. This will be the easiest thing ever. “Let’s start, then!” he says, determined. “I want to be home by nine!”

Kairi smirks. “We’ll be there by eight.”

Okay, so maybe eight is a a bit far-fetched, and nine is pushing it a little but the thing is: by half past nine, they’re home with all the information gathered and their dinner waiting to be made.

Not that it’s much, Sora reflects with a sigh. Ninja are so damn careful with their things, no matter how menial they are. It’s only thanks to Kairi knowing everyone and their mother that they’re able to find even a little bit --- thankfully, she knows someone who knows someone whose best friend was failed by Kakashi last year.

“That fucker,” the girl had said cheerfully. Her hands had violently pulled a weed, though, as they had caught her in the middle of a D-rank. “That fucker and that fucking bell test. He’ll show you two fucking bells and tell you,” here, her voice had dropped into a nasal mockery of Kakashi’s, “‘ _two bells. Only two will pass. You have ‘til noon. Good luck!_ ’ and fucking shunshin away. And then, hear me, _no matter what you do_ , he’ll fail you and won’t explain why, even if you fucking get the fucking bell. I’ve spoken to every person he’s failed and they say the same --- we have a club, you see, and you’re welcome to join it after you fail.”

“We won’t fail,” Sora had said, a bit miffed.

The girl had snorted. “Yeah, right. Tell me that tomorrow.”

Anyways, the situation is this: they have the problem, but not the solution, so they’ll probably spend tonight throwing ideas around instead of sleeping as it should be (not that he’d sleep much...). Then again, when has anything been easy in their lives? 

“All genin teams have three members,” Kairi muses, breaking the silence. She twirls her chopsticks and one slides from her fingers and clatters to the floor, but her drifty expression remains unbroken. “Is there any record of two- or one-genin teams? No, I don’t think so...”

“There’s apprenticeships,” Riku offers around a mouthful of rice.

“Can you see Kakashi with an apprentice?” Sora interjects, lips twitching at the thought. If it really is one, he hopes it’s not him the poor sap saddled with that, even if it’s a little mean to his friends.

Riku tilts his imaginary hat. “Touché.”

“No, no, no, _no_! A genin team always has three members!” Kairi snaps, and angrily slurps ramen. In a second, the whole container is empty, its contents either on her stomach or spilled on her face. “This is a trap!”

“Well, these are ninjas,” Riku says, and Sora nods approvingly. How wise.

Slowly, very slowly, Kairi’s head drops until her forehead touches the wood of the table. She whines pitifully, an almost inaudible “I know” hidden in between the meaningless onomatopoeias. What a… sudden meltdown.

They allow her ten minutes to compose herself, but just that. Once the clock hits nine fifty-five, Sora pokes her cheek. “Kairi.”

“What.” It’s muffled by the table.

His pokes get faster, stronger. “Kairi.”

“ _What_.”

Pokepokepokepokepokepokepoke. “Kai - ri.”

In between one blink and the other, five fingers dig into his wrist and ferocious blue eyes glare at him from behind loads of loose auburn hair. Sora grins. “WHAT.”

“Let’s think.” After a pause, he adds, for his continued health, “Calmly.”

Kairi snorts, but fully raises her head and brushes her hair out of her eyes, cheeks and everywhere. Once she’s regained an appearance of composure, she glances expectantly at them, and they start with the rain of ideas. The ideastorm, if you will. What an ingenious term, by the way.

“Okay, so it’s obviously a trap,” Sora says, rubbing his chin. “It’s three or it’s nothing. No one.”

“Yeah, we had already established that half an hour ago,” Riku drawls. Sora punches him in the arm. “Good try. Anyways, traps hide something. What’s this one hiding? I propose…” He trails off, probably just to be dramatic, the brat.

“You propose?”

“Shut up, I’m thinking - Hey! That _did_ hurt.”

Sora pouts. That’s all his hopes for a brilliant idea dashed. “Then don’t be an idiot.”

Tapping her fingers against the table, Kairi leans in and bops him in the nose, shooting him a fond look of _Stop or I’ll make you_ \--- one very reminiscent of Donald. (For a moment, Sora’s heart aches.) Without acknowledging this gesture, she throws in her part, “The test is made to face him one-versus-one.”

“So you think we’d fail if we act like three genin can beat a jounin and attack him without planning?” Riku says, mouth twisting in thought. He sounds as convinced by the idea as Sora feel --- that is to say, not much. “Humbleness is the key, huh…”

“Yeah.” Kairi shrugs. “Maybe.”

“I think…” Riku offers again, because obviously Kairi is unconvinced, and raises a hand when Sora is about to punch him again. “This time I’ve got an idea. Maybe it’s a test to see how well we do in tense situations, and the answer is to do nothing.”

That’s not it. Something tells Sora that’s not it, but he can’t quite put his finger on it, can’t say why his instinct says that. Argh, he hates having things on the tip of his tongue, man. He can’t reject something without knowing why.

Kairi hums noncommittally. “Maybe we have to break the bells so everyone gets a perfect third?”

Okay, Sora, calm down and think. What does Kakashi even want?

“...Maybe there’ll be a secret code in his words, which we’ll have to identify and decipher.”

He’s a model ninja, so whatever Konoha wants. Now, what does Konoha want?

“Haha, Riku, don’t be dumb. _Obviously_ , what Kakashi wants is to make us despair, and, if we’re funny enough, he’ll pass us! I don’t know why we’re even having this discussion when it’s this clear.”

That’s obvious. From when he was admitted into the orphanage, to the academy classes, to the books he reads, to the series he watches, to the conversations he overhears, to the speeches the hokage gives, to what Iruka told them the day they graduated, what Konoha wants, what Konoha has been indoctrinating into them…

“Teamwork,” he whispers, bringing all eyes to him. Louder, confident, he repeats, “The answer is teamwork. Kakashi tries to bring us apart, so we have to band together, and he’ll pass us. I’m sure of it.”

While Riku twists his lips harder, Kairi stares at him wordlessly, thousands of thoughts running from behind her eyes. Then she blinks, smiles, and claps her hands together, delighted. “That sounds just about right, Sora!” she says, sliding the chair back and getting up. 

She walks up to him and offers him a high five, which he gladly returns. Hah, teamwork, the easiest answer of them all --- there’s no way they’d fail in a test about that, not after having been two lifetimes together and fighting for each other half the time in them.

Kakashi appears at the training ground three hours late. 

He knows, he knows, you don’t need to tell him… A bit too early for him, right? Well, don’t blame him; he just wants to get this over with and fail them and return to his ANBU duties and drown all of his circling, asphyxiating thoughts with blood. Absolutely no biggie.

Anyways, he arrives, and finds his cute little temporary students all huddled together, discussing something in whispers. It’s a pity that when he takes a step, their amusingly focused expressions change into simpers. Well, that’s not quite right: the Uchiha’s twists into a frown.

“Hi, sensei,” Sakura says, smile fixed on her face. Kakashi doesn’t rise an eyebrow, but he kind of wants to do it --- no one is going to shout at him for being late? That’s a first. “What’re we going to do today?”

“You’re going to earn your right to be genin,” he answers conversationally, and then, ominously, “Of course, if you don’t, you’ll have to return to the Academy!”

The three evil children just blink at him, falsely wide-eyed, but don’t flinch, wince, grimace, shake, shout, cry, or show any of the varying responses he’s seen over his years as a one-day teacher. Kakashi pouts. Aw, come on, not even a little fear? Way to cut off joy from his life.

Naruto tilts his head. “And what do we have to do, sensei?” 

Kakashi sighs and explains the good ol’ bell test, hoping to see some reaction --- betrayed looks, a smirk that speaks about plans to turn against one’s teammates… But no! When he finishes, they just exchange complicit glances and Kakashi knows, _knows_ , that someone has snitched. Thank everything he hasn’t told anyone he’s failed the answer to the bell test, because then he’d have to make another on the fly and no one wants that.

He’s quite tempted to do it anyways, but honestly, information gathering is a ninja skill and he’s not _that_ unjust. ...Besides, he doesn’t have any ideas that won’t mean the hokage kicking his ass for not even giving them a chance. Even if he failed them, he would have to tell them the answer to the test and give them a second chance, just to be saved from a month doing D-ranks.

“You have until noon,” he says, taking the clock out of his pocket and setting it on a tree trunk. “Start… now!”

In the second he says it, the three of them are already lunging at him, sharp weapons out. Naruto strikes first, but stepping back lazily is all Kakashi need to do to avoid him. The Uchiha tries to stab his back, and Kakashi grabs his wrist and slams him into Naruto. That leaves just Sakura, whose hand stops in shock just before touching the bells. It’s a small pause, but enough for Kakashi to push her back. She falls on her ass, yelping. 

There’s a lull in the fight, in which they all glare at him while panting. It only lasts a moment, though, because in the next, they’re already up and moving to poke his eyes off. 

Heh, how cute (not).

As the exam drags on, Kakashi is forced to face reality.

These three kids are working in tandem. Their teamwork is flawless. There’s no moment of betrayal, no time where one of them eyes the others and thinks about sacrificing them for their own careers. It’s almost moving, how a friendship so deep --- he jumps, and kunai fly past him --- has blossomed into children so young. Really, the Academy indoctrination has gone really strong here.

However, Kakashi has to find a way to fail them. He could always not let them get the bells --- Naruto aims a kick at his face, but he dodges and smiles as he clatters to the floor ---, but sadly, the Third knows that’s not the point of this exercise, and he won’t allow any foul play. He’s probably watching them with his crystal ball, the untrusting old man.

That means he has to turn them --- Sakura ferociously tries to bust his kneecaps, but Kakashi takes ahold of her ankle and makes her lose her balance --- against each other. And what better strategy that the good tie-someone-to-a-tree one?

He lets time pass without giving an inch and, eventually, when the bell rings, he slams Naruto into a tree and ties him up in a second.

“W-what -” Naruto blurts out, eyes so wide they’re going to spill out. He thrashes against the ropes.

“No deadlast can keep up with the two best scorers of the Academy, you liar,” he says sunnily, mouth curving into a fake smile. His eyes slide from him to the other two brats. “And you two weren’t surprised.”

Sakura smiles angelically up at him, all white teeth and pink gums. “Welllllll…”

Kakashi shakes his head sadly. “Don’t try to lie to me again. I’m hurt enough already.” He wipes a fake tear away, and then drops the act. “Anyways, you haven’t managed to get the bells from me. But! As I am the greatest, most magnanimous man to ever lie before your eyes, I’ll give you another chance after you eat lunch.” He glares at Naruto. “Not you, though. That’s your punishment for lying. And, if I catch someone, _anyone_ feeding him… you’ll fail!”

And then, he shunshins away and lands behind a nearby tree. 

Discreet --- but not too much, because these are not even genin, he doesn’t need to take a lot of precautions ---, he peers out from behind its trunk, one hand resting on it and another pulling Icha Icha to his face. Hopefully, this intimidation has been enough to make them abandon Naruto, and, if not… 

His eyes settle on Sakura opening her bento and feeding Naruto without hesitation. Or, well, trying to, because Naruto is stubborn, and he tilts his head away from the food, probably saying something along the lines of “don’t or he’ll fail you!”. He keeps at it until the Uchiha grabs his face and squashes his mouth open, giving her the opportunity to slide some food in there. Sakura and the Uchiha fistbump, and Naruto pouts. 

Ugh, teamwork. Why does the team he wants the less have the best teamwork? Is this a cosmic joke? Is the universe trying to take revenge for all the times he has made it wait? Is that it? Has Kakashi gained the fury of whatever omnipresent being is there thanks to irritating people slightly by arriving four hours late to places?

Anyways, he shunshins in there again, only for silence and three frozen stares to meet him. 

“Boo,” he says to break the silence. Belatedly, Sakura screams and throws her bento box at him. Kakashi doesn’t bother to dodge it, so he receives a boxful of rice to the face. It clatters to the floor, leaving more silence and horror (and amusement, but his pride doesn’t want to think about that) in its wake. To break it, once again, he smiles ominously. “You fail,” he says, and shunshins away once again.

He can feel the reproachful looks of stalking ANBU boring into his back, but he signals them to back off. This is the test of fire: if they react to this with camaraderie, then he’ll… sadly be forced to accept them and give them his respect.

With his heart in his throat, Kakashi watches. Watches as Naruto sighs an apology and Sakura bops him in the nose. Watches as the Uchiha takes a kunai out of his back pocket and cuts off Naruto’s ropes. Watches as they take each other’s hands and start to walk, probably to their shared home.

Kakashi closes his eyes, heaves a deep, deep, _deep_ sigh, and when he opens them again, he’s in front of - his cute not-temporary little students. They blink up at him, all at the same time. Eerie.

“Er…” Naruto --- or should he call him Sora now? --- says, wide-eyed and wary. “Are you here to gloat?”

“No, I…” He sighs again and pained, because this situation hurts his entire self, he grits out, “You pass.”

There’s (again) a moment of silence, in which they three stare at him, stare at each other, stare at him again, stare at their hands and then stare at him for the third time. Their expressions range from surprise to distrust, and it would be kind of funny if Kakashi’s heart weren’t muttering its last word inside his chest.

“Is this a joke?” the U - ...Riku snaps, hand drifting towards his weapon pouch. “Because if it is…”

Through his brain’s pained scream, Kakashi smiles. “It’s not. This was all a test of teamwork, and you have the best teamwork I’ve ever seen on a group of genin. So, congratulations! You are genin now.” 

Here, he’d take them to the Memorial Stone and explain to them the value of teamwork, but they know it already and he can’t remain here, standing under his piercing gazes, a second more. Naruto - Sora opens his mouth, but, before he can say anything, Kakashi leaves in a flurry of leaves.

Sleep eludes him that night.

Not that that’s new --- sleep is a bitch to catch during the best nights, let alone one when his life has irrevocably changed once again. The dark, dirty ceiling mocks him as he glares at it, without any heat behind it. The lurching in his stomach takes all his emotional energy.

He couldn’t help but resent the Third for forcing him to examine this team. There’s no way he didn’t know they would pass a test of teamwork with all the ANBU he assigns to watch N- Sora supplying information about him. He should have bothered to do a more thorough background check to find the way to break their team in three.

But - he can’t help but respect them. Their teamwork has been flawless, and, undeniably, they have passed with flying colours. Failing them would have been a disservice to the village.

Allowing them to be on his team will probably be a graver one, though. After all, all the members of his team have ended up dead because of him, two of them relatives of his new students. Really, with Kakashi’s track record, what’s the Third thinking? 

(Okay, he knows: the Third is trying to pull him out of the depths of ANBU and force him to develop a bond with the new generation so as to renew his love for the village and ensure he doesn’t abandon it or throw himself and Konoha’s last active sharingan into a suicide mission.

He knows. He _knows_ , but---)

Not willing to look at the ceiling anymore, Kakashi closes his eyes and breathes. In, out. In, out. In, out. In, out…

They are doomed.

D-ranked missions proceed without a hitch, no matter how many Kakashi throws at them. 

The kids (Sora, Riku and Kairi, he reminds himself to call them) do it all --- maybe not flawlessly, because Sora is an awful gardener and Kairi can’t calm down an animal for her life, but with enthusiasm that can charm any clients. Could have, if they weren’t prejudiced. As it is, they just glare at the team, and reluctantly thank them when Kakashi smiles threateningly behind the kids’ back.

 _Maybe I should do that more often_ … Kakashi muses, rubbing his chin as he watches from outside of the shop the cashier inflating Sora’s grocery prices. Judging by the way his eyes darken momentarily, Sora notices, but he doesn’t argue --- just sighs and fiddles with his wallet to pull the money out.

Kakashi contemplates walking away and pretending he hasn’t seen anything, but, honestly, as a teacher he can’t do that, and less so to the son of his mentor, the man he owes more than his life to. Owed. 

He walks into the shop and rests a hand on Sora’s shoulder as the boy takes out the last of his money. He tilts his head up and widens his eyes when he meets Kakashi’s smile.

“...Sensei? Er, what are you doing here?” Sora says, uncertainly. Kakashi would pay to see what kind of thoughts are running through his mind --- hopefully, he’s not been a teacher so bad that Sora thinks he’s going to join into the unfairness, but. You never know.

He crinks his visible eye. “Helping my cute little student. What else?” 

And with that said, he walks up to the cashier, stopping only when his nose is thirty centimeters away from the cashier’s. One by one, Kakashi picks and unpicks Sora’s groceries and examines them, humming all the while.

“How much do these cost? Don’t lie to me. I’ll know.”

“Th - three hundred yen, sir,” the cashier stammers, a drop of sweat running past his temple. 

Kakashi hums, playing idly with a banana. “And how much was he going to pay?”

“...Nine hundred and fifty.” It’s no more than a whisper, but Kakashi’s always had sharp hearing. He smiles his most threatening smile and that’s all he has to do for the cashier to stutter to Sora, “Sorry for the misunderstanding, s-sir! It won’t happen again.”

A job well done, Kakashi’s smile drops and he puts the groceries in the paper bags again and turns to Sora, who is staring at him with his mouth parted and an unreadable look on his eyes. It’s kind of sad, Kakashi thinks, heart stopping for just a second and compelling him to do _something_ more. Ah, the woes of being a sensei.

He hands Sora a bag, and holds the other. At his cute little student’s questioning look, he elaborates, “I’ll help you carry it. Let’s go.”

Kakashi starts walking towards the direction of Sora’s home and, three and a half seconds later, footsteps approach him and end up walking by his side. He looks at his student out ot the corner of his eye and is blinded by the most honest little grin he’s ever seen on Sora’s face. He even has _dimples_.

“Thank you, sensei,” he says, blue eyes shining with happiness. Then, he looks forward. A second later, Kakashi imitates him, and hums to hide the warmth pooling on his stomach. 

“Hi, Kairi.”

“Hi, Haruka!”

“Hello, Kairi-san.”

“Hi, Tomoyo!”

“Kairi-chan! Long time no see! How are you?”

“Very well now that I’ve seen you, Taka!”

Sora and Riku don’t even bat an eye, but Kakashi does (just one bat, though, because he doesn’t want them to think he’s that easy to surprise). When the file said Kairi was a social butterfly, he didn’t think that adjective would extend to the more… unsavoury parts of the village. And here he thought that a D-rank to the red lights would be their first taste to the immorality that comes with being a ninja. As always, they’re here to disappoint him. 

Why has Kairi frequented this neighbourhood enough to know ninety per cent of the people that pass them by? A flash of cold fury curls low in his stomach as his mind conjures the image of his father bringing her here, to salvage his sinking savings and --- 

But no. Kairi doesn’t show any signs of having been sexually abused, so he shouldn’t think about it --- doesn’t mean he won’t double- and triple-check later, of course. Probably she was careless and curious, and the people around here took pity on an innocent child and didn’t harm her. 

(Not that the idea of a small Kairi, alone and defenseless, on Konoha’s most shady neighbourhood doesn’t give him chills, but he can’t do anything about the freedom civilians give their children, especially when said civilians are not her legal parents anymore.)

“Is something - hi, Daisuke! - the matter, sensei?” Kairi says, slowing down to walk next to him. He scratches his neck. Is he so easy to read? Maybe the mask has made him overconfident…

“Nothing.” He ruffles Kairi’s head and smiles when she pouts.

Eventually, they arrive to their destination: a run-down, crawling-with-dirt brothel. Even when compared to the other buildings in the area, it’s small and pathetic and a literal rat hole, down to the smell. For the first time in his life, Kakashi is almost disgusted. 

“Ew,” Sora says, eloquently. “ _Ew_. Do we really have to clean this? Please, tell me you were joking, sensei.”

Kakashi’s hand falls on his shoulder and he nods, mournful. “I’m sorry, Sora, but a job’s a job and brothels pay surprisingly well, all considered. So...” The hand on his cute little student’s shoulder slides to the small of his cute little student’s back and Kakashi pushes him towards the building. “Better get started!”

Sora stares back at him with a expression of utter betrayal and it takes all his self-control not to laugh. Sighing, Riku grabs the boy’s arm and drags him towards the entrance. Kairi snickers and skips after them, greeting all the prostitutes inside, because of course she knows them too. They have to have a talk about going to dangerous places alone. Kakashi is already dreading it. 

After that, it’s the usual: they introduce themselves to their clients (who, this time, don’t react with disgust at the sight of a jinchuuriki), the clients explain their plea (they aren’t getting any clients and need to give the building a fresh look), and Team 7 gets to work.

Even though they do stupid things with the paint and hold broom races, his cute little students finish the work in less than half the allotted time. Maybe it helps that they live without adult supervision and therefore know how to take care of a home, or maybe it’s just the job they would have excelled in isn’t ninja but plumbers, but the thing is: they’re done before nightfall.

Kakashi bids them farewell and shunshins onto the nearest rooftop --- a prime position to spy on some innocent genin, who would never suspect their good, nice, perfect sensei to betray their personal boundaries. Muahahaha. It’s for a good cause, though: he has to check the kids go home safe.

This distance is enough to hide what they’re talking about (he’s not _so_ bad), and, even though he could real their lips, he tries not to. That doesn’t mean some words don’t register in spite of his efforts.

“Maybe - walk - alone,” Kairi is saying, and that string of cut words is enough of a bad omen to put Kakashi on edge.

Sora tilts his head. “Sure - okay?” When Kairi nods, he nods back, takes Riku’s hand and they walk away, leaving Kairi alone on Konoha’s most unsafe neighbourhood. Kakashi almost has a heart-attack. What are they _thinking_?

Kakashi makes a shadow clone to go after Sora and Riku, and his real body shadows Kairi as she whistles through street after shady street, greeting people on the way. She’s strolling leisurely --- apparently, she likes to enjoy the scenery of the desolation that permeates poverty. Good to know. He’ll take her to the Land of Waves sometime.

His eyes don’t leave her form, not even when she decides to turn the corner into a narrow alleyway, where some drug addicts are taking part in their favourite hobby. 

_Fuck_ , Kakashi thinks when they stand up and glare at her with raised fists. They outnumber her one to fifteen --- not bad odds for a chunin, but for a one-week genin… Yeah, not good at all, especially when people in these areas are failed genin themselves. _Fuck_ , Kakashi thinks again, fingers curling around a kunai, legs coiled to jump into the fray.

Kairi smiles a smile full of teeth, and the fight explodes.

At first, Kairi has it under control --- that’s the only reason Kakashi hasn’t jumped yet. She jumps when someone aims a kick at her leg, she ducks when someone tries to attack her head, and she breaks someone’s nose when that same someone reaches for her chest. There’s an exchange of blows and Kairi emerges the winner.

But thugs keep coming --- probably thanks to someone who has fled and called reinforcements. Kairi defends herself nicely, with techniques that a genin shouldn't have, let alone know. She’s grinning as she punches a guy’s nose in. Kakashi raises an eyebrow --- all teams have The Bloodthirsty One, but he had thought it would be Riku, what with all his repressed feelings about the massacre and...

His train of thought stops as a dark silhouette skulks behind her, something glinting in their hand. Kakashi has half a mind to decide what to do --- the other is already moving. 

Almost without thinking, Kakashi grabs the silhouette’s arm and twists it. There’s a crack, and a red-headed woman collapses to the floor, whimpering. A knife lays at her side. It’s funny, how the sight of someone in unmeasurable pain doesn’t make Kakashi feel anything anymore. Haha. Hilarious.

The other people there take a look at him and scream. He lets them run by him without lifting a finger. They’re not his problem anymore.

“Sen… sei?” It’s Kairi’s voice. Kakashi averts his eyes from the woman, who’s now unconscious, and drags them to his student. She actually takes a step back, but them seems to think better of it and walks forward again. A playful smile blooms in her lips. “What are you doing here? Were you following me, hmmm…?”

He hums, shifts his weight from leg to leg. “Who knows.”

Kairi narrows her eyes at him, and he stares back, projecting as much confusion and disinterest as he can. Five seconds pass, and she sighs and smiles condescendingly at him. Oh, Kakashi knows that smile, sees it every time he steps tinto T&I --- it says, _I know more than you but I’m too polite to show it_. What a twelve-year-old knows that he doesn’t is a mystery, and probably and exaggeration.

“Thank you, sensei,” she says, and the smile’s edges become softer, kinder. “For helping me out, I mean. But next time…” Intertwining her fingers behind her back, Kairi leans into his personal space. Kakashi takes a step back. Kids these days, so touchy feely… “Don’t spy on me, please!”

“I’ll try,” he answers wryly. If s situation like this presents itself, there’s no way he won’t do it again, but well, there’s no harm in lying. Especially if he isn’t promising anything. 

...Why is Riku meditating in front of the Memorial Stone?

It’s a tired thought, as much as Kakashi hates to admit it. Waking up at four in the morning isn’t exactly the formula for being well-rested, and dreaming about his hand piercing through Rin, through Obito, through sensei, through his father, their flesh opening for his fingers, blood bathing---

Yeah. It hasn’t been a good night.

However, waking up so soon means he has gone to the stone earlier than usual (that doesn’t mean he will be arriving earlier at the rest of his appointments, of course), earlier meaning quarter past four in the morning. That is to say: not a good time for kids to be awake.

From his spot from behind a tree, Kakashi inspects his cute little student. His eyes are closed, but his chest moves with erratic breaths, so he’s not sleeping. His back is ramrod straight, which is another point to consider. Kakashi would consider a sleepless night if Riku’s hair wasn’t as picture-perfect as always, if his clothes weren’t the same he wore yesterday.

It all points to one conclusion: Riku hasn’t gone home since he last saw him. A spat with Sora and Riku? With his cousin?

Kakashi sighs and scratches his neck. Technically, he _could_ go away and pretend he hasn’t seen anything, but… he’s this boy’s teacher and sadly, that means he has to look for his well being, no matter the ungodly hour or his own numbness.

“Riku,” he tries, and wow is his voice raspy. He clears his throat and tries again. “Riku. ...What are you doing here so early?”

His cute little student, whose eyes had snapped open the first time he called his name, looks at the sky and sighs. Kakashi follows his eyes --- yep, the same starry sky as always, maybe even a little uglier thanks to that cloud there covering the moon.

“Practicing,” Riku mutters. It’s so unintelligible Kakashi has to strain to understand it, even with his trained ears. 

“Practicing what?”

Riku doesn’t answer and honestly, Kakashi is too tired to probe anymore. He moves to approach the stone, because no one will take his moping time from him, but then Riku’s eyes slide to pierce him, and he speaks. “Do you really have the sharingan, sensei?”

Kakashi stops. Grimaces. What an awkward question with such an awkward answer. 

Where has he heard it from anyway? He didn’t take Riku for the type to look for his innocent sensei in a Bingo Book. Then again, Kairi certainly _is_ that type, and what Kairi knows, those two will certainly know too. They’re like a hivemind. Which brings again the question of why they’re not here when they’re friend is alone on the moral equivalent of a graveyard.

“...Yes,” he says, going for the truth. Hopefully, having this conversation now will mean there won’t be a meltdown in the middle of a mission. Of course, that means Kakashi will have to speak about having one of the last legacies from the Uchiha without stepping in any emotional mines. 

“Hm… I see.” Closing his eyes again, Riku leans against the edge of the stone. He stays quiet for thirty seconds, but it’s obvious the conversation isn’t finished. Kakashi remains rooted to his place for lack of something better to do. “How did you develop it? Are you an Uchiha?”

Kakashi’s grimace grows. It’s four in the morning and he doesn’t want to spill half of his dramatic life story onto a twelve-year-old, even one as… special as his student. But if he lies… The information’s not too hard to find --- the gruesome details are censored, but everyone from his generation knows someone who knows someone who heard it from a friend. It was the top gossip for a month, after all, until the daimyo got married for the first time.

Probably, this is the first step to real trust --- but honestly, he doesn’t want to take it. Let’s go for a half-truth. “An Uchiha gave it to me. A gift for my ascension to jounin.”

Even without opening his eyes, Riku’s face conveys so well the feeling of _Wow, what a gift_ Kakashi is almost tempted to clap. Thankfully, his cute little student doesn’t comment on it. Apparently, he has a minimum of social awareness to notice how stilted Kakashi’s words are. 

Which gives Kakashi an opening. “Why don’t you go home, Riku?” he says, trying to make his words as soft and kind as possible. 

“I’m training,” he repeats, his brow crinkling in a way that speaks about annoyance. Charming. 

“At four in the morning?” The itch to remove his headband just to show his arching eyebrows is strong, but Kakashi manages to hold on to his appearance. He can’t go revealing parts of himself so easily --- where’s the mystery, the fun, otherwise?

Riku nods. “At four in the morning.”

“...Why?”

Shrugging, Riku cracks an eye open. Amusement dances infuriatingly in it. “I felt like it.”

“ _Riku_.”

Maybe it’s the tone of voice or maybe Riku’s getting bored by Kakashi’s pestering, but the thing is - he gets up! Pats the dust off his pants! Stretches! Makes to leave! Listens to what Kakashi is implying for once in his life! It’s so moving Kakashi’s about to cry. Really, there are tears in his eyes.

(...Perhaps the lack of sleep is affecting him.)

“If you’re so eager for me to go, then I’ll go,” Riku drawls, smirking. He turns his back to Kakashi and starts to walk, hand waving lazily. “See you, sensei. Thank you for worrying, but you don’t need to. I’m okay.” Yeah, right. Kakashi worrying? Pfffft.

When Riku’s back is nothing more than a dot in the distance, Kakashi turns to the Memorial Stone and finds he’s not in the mood to mourn anymore.

One particular night, no different from any other, the trio speaks.

“So,” one of them starts, and makes a dramatic pause. After getting swatted on the head for his troubles, he continues, “what do you think about Kakashi-sensei?” His tone of voice is sure and confident, and it’s obvious he already knows the other two’s answer. 

“Do you really need to ask?” asks the girl, tilting her head. She trades glances with the other boy. “Obviously, he passes.”

The boy who first spoke pouts and crosses his arms petulantly. He mutters, “I didn’t have to, but I wanted to make it sound more official - Ouch. Stop hitting me!”

His cute little students do D-ranks so professionally Kakashi feels is time for a slight upgrade. So, he picks a C-rank.

Famous last words.

Okay, maybe they aren’t famous and maybe they aren’t last words, but with Momochi Zabuza, the Demon of the fucking Mist, right in front of him, Kakashi feels entitled to a little exaggeration. Really, the mission had started to turn south ever since they defeated the Demon Brothers --- he shouldn’t have given in to the puppy eyes and the wanderlust of his students to continue the mission.

But what is done is done, and now Kakashi has to fight a legend while protecting his client and three kids. Three kids who, by the way, aren’t showing the proper amount of respect a situation like this requires.

“Go get him, sensei!” Sora says. Kakashi doesn’t need to look back to know his cupping a hand around his mouth. 

“You can do it!” Kairi adds. Surely, she’s punching the air while she says it. Brat. “Pummel him into the ground!” 

Riku doesn’t say anything, but the three of them think like one, so he’s probably cheering Kakashi on silently. Honestly, it’s kind of adorable how they don’t doubt him even for a moment, but now’s _really_ not the time. It only serves to add weight upon his shoulders. He cannot let them die.

“How… enthusiastic,” Momochi says, snorting. The tone is light, but his fingers curl around the arm of his sword. So he’s one of those ninja who prefer to have a conversation before a big fight, huh? 

Kakashi’ll humour him. “That they are,” he answers, eye crinkled but position ready. “Pretty cute, huh?”

Momochi grunts. His mouth curls into a bloodthirsty grin --- if Kakashi had one inch less of experience, he would have shuddered. As it is, he looks back, passive and bored. “It’d be a shame if one of them died. Heh. Relax the glare, Hatake, I’m not going to lay a finger on their pretty little heads… yet.”

And with that, the fight starts.

It ends too soon, when Kakashi is tricked into a paralysing bubble. He coils, tenses, untenses his muscles, tries to curl his fingers into a hand-seal, but nothing he tries works. He’s forced to face one bitter truth, one he’s always had in the back of his mind since his father, since Obito, since Rin, since sensei--- 

\---He’s going to die.

That, however, doesn’t mean his stupid kids have to die with him.

“Run and leave me behind!” he shouts out to them, sending them the mightiest glare he can without moving his eyebrow muscles. The stupid, stupid children don’t move. Kakashi struggles against the paralysis, but it’s too much. “Come on! Take the client and go away!”

They still don’t move, just trade complicit glances amongst themselves.Then, they huddle in a circle, leaving their back open for Zabuza to strike, and start to mutter. The words are too soft to make them out from here, but going by the way Tazuna’s jaw gradually opens until he’s gaping, it’s no good.

“Nope,” the dumb, dumb children chorus once their impromptu meeting ends. Even though they are clearly ready for a fight, three genin, no matter how good they are, can’t win against Momochi Zabuza.

If they survive this, Kakashi is going to murder them. (Not that they will, and the thought is bitter.)

Momochi chuckles darkly, and sneers, “So you brats are that eager to die, huh? Well, who am I to deny it to them.”

“You won’t kill us,” says Kairi, posture relaxing in the same way a lion relaxes before its prey. Except it’s a lion cub, and its prey is a tiger, and it’s way over its head.

Credit where credit is due, his students’ grins don’t even waver before the wave of killing intent that rolls off Momochi. That, however, makes Momochi visibly angry (the fingers of the hand attached to the damn bubble twitch), so maybe they should have been scared shitless. Or at least, pretended to be, if only to - have a swift death. 

A water clone of Momochi appears from the floor, and it lunges at his students. Kakashi’s heart stops for a second. He still can’t move.

They scatter around, Kairi fleeing with the client (he wants to think they’ve decided for Kairi to run away for real, but that’s too naïve, so he discards it immediately; they always do things in threes) and Sora and Riku jumping to opposite sides. The second his feet touch the floor, Sora sprints towards Momochi, a kunai in hand and concentration in his eyes.

Kakashi can almost count the many, _many_ openings he leaves in his wake. The only reason he doesn’t is because he doesn’t want to die from a heart-attack, as close to it as he is right now. Getting pulled over the edge, when there’s still a chance, as little as it is, of saving them --- there’s no way he will allow it.

Zabuza tries to take advantage of one of those, but thank God, Riku deflects him with the weirdest sword ever, and Kakashi’s seen some weird weapons. It’s like a key, but bluntless and as long as his arm, and where the hell has he gotten it from? He wasn’t carrying it earlier.

The weapons clash. Although Riku is a surprisingly good swordsman, Momochi isn’t one of the Seven for nothing, and even a clone is enough to wrestle a win. Momochi wins the clash, and the sword cuts a bit of Riku’s ear off. Kakashi still can’t move.

In that very moment, though, Sora jumps from behind Riku and tries to punch Momochi with a chakra-infused fist --- another thing Kakashi hasn’t taught them. If they survive this, unlikely as it seems, they’ll have to have a talk. Really, if he weren’t about to die, both from tension and sword impalation, he would be hurt that they haven’t shared all their skills with their poor sensei.

Momochi’s sword _slams_ against the ground, almost chopping Sora’s hand off in the process. Thankfully, his stupid little student has some nice reflexes, and takes it off the sword’s course before it can touch him. When Momochi is about to follow that attack, Riku stops his sword with a clash again, and that’s the only thing that saves Sora from being an amputee.

The two versus one clone goes on and on, and even though his students get cut more often than not, they survive and fight and Kakashi wants to be proud but he’s just so - so--- 

He can’t begin to name the thousands of feelings choking him. At least, Kairi has gotten away---

The bubble bursts.

Kakashi doesn’t need to look down to know Kairi’s flashing a victory sign at him from underwater, but he does anyway. With half-lidded eyes, he watches as Kairi grins wolfishly at him and swims up to the surface. Kakashi is already out --- no way he’s getting caught in the damn bubble again, not with his team still here and in need of being saved.

“Come on, Kakashi-sensei,” she says the moment her mouth tastes air. “I haven’t pulled you out to be here all day!”

Kakashi sighs, glances at Momochi from the corner of his eyes. Their eyes lock. In the next second, weapons are already drawn. “Thank you, Kairi,” he says in the last moment of peace before the fight restarts. He hesitates. “...I’m proud of you three.”

Kairi’s eyes widen, her mouth parts open, and that’s all Kakashi can watch before knives start piercing the air.

“Retreat!” he hears her say as he dodges Momochi’s sword. He doesn’t risk a glance at her, but his hearing is sharp enough to catch her steps pounding against the grass, towards where Riku and Sora have just defeated the water clone. Then, the steps multiply as they run away from the fight, probably towards a tree.

 _Stupid kids_ , Kakashi thinks, as he throws a punch to Momochi’s throat. There’s no heat behind it.

“What do we do now?”

Sora’s words break the silence that had settled over the group over the last minutes. Witnessing their ever-strong sensei fall unconscious to the floor has left them speechless, especially after an unknown ninja had taken Zabuza away under the guise of being a hunter nin. 

_An obviously fake ninja,_ Kairi had said later. _I mean, what a coincidence, arriving_ just _at the end of a fight. They're obviously his accomplice._ Which is just great, considering they are alone with an unconscious jounin and a civilian old man to carry. Not that they aren’t the greatest team ever, Sora amends mentally, but they aren’t invincible.

“Pick him up,” Riku says, and proceed to grab his legs. He looks expectantly at them. “The sooner we get to the…” He snaps his fingers three times, frowning. Sora smiles through the exhaustion hanging heavy in his mind --- the way Riku has to maneuver one of Kakashi’s legs on the crook of his elbow in order to snap is pretty funny.

“Land of the Waves,” Tazuna grunts and crosses his arms. His wide, dilated pupils betray his lingering fear, though.

Riku snaps his finger once more and returns to a more natural posture. Aw. “Right, that. The sooner we get to the Land of Waves, the better.” Sora shrugs and goes to grab Kakashi’s wrists. Now, all that’s left is Kairi picking his torso and bam! Ready to go.

But she’s still there, staring at nothing and thinking about everything. It’s a pity Sora’s too lazy to walk back to her, because he wants to wave his hand in front of her vacant eyes. Instead, he calls out, “Kairi?”

She blinks, and blue eyes snap to them. “Huh? Ah, er. I’m going, I’m going.”

She jogs to Kakashi’s unconscious body and lifts his ass up, bridal style, and the travel starts. In their old lives, this sort of thing wouldn’t have fazed them, but now, as undeveloped thirteen-year-old who have just come out of a fight, the weight is heavy on their arms. Thirty minutes in, and they’re already panting. And, as they are going at a slower pace than a snail, Sora is bored.

This can’t continue like this. Desperate, he grasps for the first topic of conversation he can think of. “What were you thinking…” Pant, pant, “about earlier, Kairi? When you...” Pant, pant, “stared a hole into a tree...”

Kairi looks up at him, her eyes conveying a very clear message: _why are you making me talk when I can barely breathe?_ Sora pretends he doesn’t catch it, and eventually, she answers, “It’s just…” Her eyes flicker to Kakashi’s face, and… is she reddening? Kairi never reddens what the hell. “He said something…! And it was, like, the cutest thing ever…! And he’s so closed off but he said it and that only made it cuter and aaaaaaaaah!”

Riku snorts, managing to look both amused and disdainful even with his face botched red. Meanwhile, Sora almost vibrates in his place. “What did he say, what did he say?”

Kairi smiles, derpy and real, and it’s as beautiful a smile as it’s ever been. In a hush, she leans in as far as she can while holding a thousand-kilogram body and says, “He said…”

The suspense is killing Sora. “He said…”

“He said he was proud of us!” Kairi squeals, quickly. And - _awwwwww_.

“Awwwwwwww,” Sora, never one for not saying what’s on his mind, coos. A smile tugs on his lips. “My stomach tingles. You’re right, that was the most adorable thing to ever thing.”

“I know, right?”

And that brings out the gossipy Kairi, which’s best Kairi for when you’re bored. Knowing everyone in the village gives you material for three hours of nonstop conversation, and that’s exactly the time it takes to arrive to the Land of Waves. Sora yawns, and enters Tazuna’s house.

Kakashi’s eyes snap open.

He’s in an unknown place: brown ceiling, creaking floor, old, dented doors, all difficult to see by the night but still visible thanks to the dim moonlight. He’s not alone. He can count one, two, three breaths, huddled together in a corner of the room. His enemies must be pretty incompetent, if he can hear ---

Wait.

The hand reaching for his kunai pouch stills as he really takes in his surroundings. The air smells like sea salt, there are family portraits in the walls, and the door’s dents clearly mark some kid’s growing height. He’s not tied, he’s not drugged and he’s not maimed. He’s not in an unknown place, not really --- he’s in a house of the Land of the Waves, probably the client’s.

...And the soft breathing?

His eyes are heavy, but Kakashi drags them towards the source of the noise. Slowly, they pass by a lamp, another photo, a vase with a lone flower, and stop when they find…

Aw.

Riku sleeps against a corner of the room, blowing a lock of his bangs every time he puffs a breath of air. Sora has nuzzled his head in his right shoulder. His nose is buried in it, and a wild spike of hair has gotten into his mouth, being sucked in and out with each soft snore. Meanwhile, Kairi is curled on the boys laps, and in that moment, it’s clear she’s the smallest of the trio. They’re all halfway covered by a blanket with a bear motif --- like the one that covers Kakashi, now that he notices.

It’s… an adorable picture, as much as it pains him to admit it. Especially considering the probable reason as to why they’re sleeping in a corner of this specifical guest room instead of on bed or futons or, at least, somewhere more comfortable than there. If Kakashi were a lesser man, he would have cooed.

As it is, he can only curse his chakra exhaustion. Of all times he can’t use the sharingan to remember something…

“Hey,” Sora says, looking at the fox in the eyes and smiling the biggest smile he can muster up with three hours of sleep and a giant demon glaring him down --- that is to say, a big ass one. The fox --- what’s their name, anyways? --- doesn’t answer. Sora presses, “ _Hey_.” Silence. “Hey!”

Just when Sora’s about to “hey!” for the fourth time, a deep sigh bounces against the mindspace and blows Sora backwards. He lands squarely on his butt, but manages to get up just in time for the fox to say, “Leave me alone.”

“...Hey.”

“What,” the fox growls, a fang peeking out from under his lip. 

Great! Progress! Sora dusts off his pants and the smile returns full force. “Let’s make a deal, fox-san.”

The fox doesn’t say anything, but it’s obvious what’s running through 5h3i4 mind. _A deal?_ they must be thinking. _I am curious, but I don’t want to lower myself to ask. Instead, I’ll glare and look scarily grumpy until he caves and tells me. That way, I remain the Biggest Douche In The Entire Planet_. Okay, maybe Sora has gotten a bit carried away in the last part, but the thing is - the fox isn’t going to ask.

He’s kind of tempted to hold the silence until they speak, but honestly he’s not that eager to die. “Well,” he says, and grins when the fox doesn’t dismiss him, “I kind of need a bit of power. Not for anything evil!” Sora amends quickly when they glare at him. “But we seem to have bad luck and I have to protect them from people _way_ stronger than me. In exchange, I’ll… make you feel less lonely---”

“Enough.” The fox’s tone is hard enough to break rocks. Jeez, was Sora too direct? Or maybe he read them wrong and aren’t lonely… Nah, that can’t be it. Who wouldn’t be lonely, trapped inside some random kid’s stomach?

Sora pouts. He can’t let it end here. “No.”

“Yes.”

“No.”

“Yes.”

“No.”

“ _Yes_ ,” the fox says, with enough emphasis to end the argument. Argh, how stubborn --- Riku’s soulmate is stuck on his belly. What a sitcom he’s trapped in.

And okay, if Sora can’t convince them (yet), at least he’ll be polite. “By the way,” he says, and smiles again, “what’s your name? I can’t keep thinking about you as ‘fox’, you know. And besides, we can’t be friends if I don’t know it!”

The fox doesn’t answer. Sora blinks, and when he opens his eyes, he’s staring at Tazuna’s old wall. His neck is bent over like a fallen tree, head resting on a shoulder. There’s a warm weight on his lap, and another on top of his head. His eyelids weigh.

What…? 

He blinks again, and it dawns on him. He’s awake. That _stupid_ old demon, pushing him out of his own mind.

There’s a rustle of a cloth, far from him, where… Kakashi’s bed--- 

Sora’s head snaps up. Turns out the warm weight on top of his head was Riku’s one, and the sudden movement makes the poor organ collide against the wall and startle him awake and Sora will apologise later but now he can’t because Kakashi’s awake!

“Sensei!” Sora says, trying to stand up. Kairi is sprawled on his legs, though, and he has to make roll her away before he can. Once he’s on his feet, he repeats, “Kakashi-sensei! You’re awake!”

“Ungh,” Riku says.

Kairi keeps sleeping, not even twitching when her bed changes from bony to floory. Sora takes a moment to be offended --- and _she_ calls _him_ lazy bum? Hypocrite. He's not the only one who had been caught sleeping on the beach --- just… the one who was caught the most. But Kairi is a sleepyhead too, and a deeper sleeper at that.

...Anyways.

“That I am, Sora. That I am,” Kakashi says. His mask is still on, out of respect for his privacy, but Sora has gotten used to seeing his mouth through the cloth; right now, it’s curled into a half-grimace, half-smile. “...How many days was I unconscious?”

“Mmmmm…” Sora tilts his head, counts with his fingers, and laughs at Kakashi’s subtle gobsmacked expression. “I’m kidding, I’m kidding! Two days. Which, for chakra exhaustion without specialised medical care, is pretty amazing.” Sora did his best, but he’s still light years away from specialising.

Kakashi hums and doesn’t say anything else. Meanwhile, Riku is getting up from the floor as well as he can --- that is to say, it’s physically painful to watch. His eyes are still closed, heavy with sleep, so he crashes against a wall, against a lamp, against Sora---

“Oof,” Sora says, and slings an arm around Riku’s shoulder to steady him. Riku grumbles and leans into the touch. In the background, Kairi is still sleeping. When she wakes up, Sora’s gonna tease her, as Buzz Lightyear said, to infinity and beyond. “Careful there, man. Don’t want to break your noise.”

“Ngh,” Riku says, dropping his head into Sora’s neck. It’s a bit of an awkward position, what with Riku being taller than him and whatever, but Sora’s spent the night in that same one, so fair’s fair and he’ll have to deal with it. Absentmindedly, he takes one of Riku’s soft locks and twirls it in his fingers, trying not to feel envious of its quality. Not that he puts half the effort Riku does in his appearance, but still.

“By the way, sensei,” he says, dragging his eyes away from Riku. “Was the hunter-nin a fake?”

“...Why, yes, I believe it was.” Kakashi’s entire posture closes off and Sora doesn’t sigh, but it’s a near thing. Is it surprise, suspicion, discomfort or mere instinct what causes it this time? Ah, Kakashi, you have much to learn about people. “What makes you think that?”

He shrugs --- with one shoulder, of course, ‘cause Riku is snoozing in the other (hopefully, without drooling all over him; he loves Riku, but his drool is another story). “Convenience. And it was Kairi’s idea, not ours as a group. The merit’s hers.”

“I see! I’ll take it into account,” Kakashi says, light-hearted, but his eye is boring into Sora, apparently looking into his very soul. Sora swallows. What… what has gotten into him? He’s not going to kill them, is he? _Is he_? It seems a long time passes before Kakashi looks away, towards Kairi. “Anyways, wake her up. And… Riku too.”

“What for?” Sora shifts his weight. Having Riku pressing into his left side is a bit tiring, and he’s starting to tilt to the right.

Kakashi smiles, and Sora can almost --- almost --- forget that strange moment earlier. “I’m going to teach you something.”

And Sora doesn’t have to wake Kairi up, because the moment the word _teach_ leaves Kakashi’s lips, she’s already scrambling up, eyes wide open and smiling as if she’d been awake since sunrise. The only sign she’s just woken up is her incredible bedhead, plastered to a side of her face and blown in the other.

Meanwhile, Riku is still nuzzling his head on the curve of Sora’s neck. In spite of being on his feet, he’s gone limp, and Sora has to pull from his disappointing arm strength so he doesn’t fall to the floor. It takes thirty seconds of gentle shaking before he’s coherent enough to speak. 

“‘m awake, ‘m awake…” He’s clearly not, so Sora shakes him harder. Only when his head is bobbing up and down does Riku truly wake up. He unslings Sora’s arm from his shoulders and _glares_. “I’m. Awake.”

Sora raises his hands, grinning. “Now you are.”

“What are you going to teach us, sensei?” Kairi says, eyes full of stars. Heh, what a nerd. Not that he can’t blame her --- the times Kakashi has taught them anything can be counted with the hands of a finger. That is to say, zero. Zero times. “Is it a new jutsu? Is it is it?”

“As you seem to know Momochi isn’t dead…” Kakashi clears his throat, gestures for Sora to bring him his crutches. Sora does, and he starts to get up, saying, “Do you know tree walking?”

“I know what it is,” Sora ventures, tilting his head. He’s never seen someone walking on a tree, but with that name, there’s few things it could be. Chakra is weird, but it can’t make trees walk, so… Or maybe it can? “But I don’t know how to do it.”

Kairi and Riku echo his answer, except in that they don’t kind of lie. They spend every day together, and practically live in the same house (or more than practically, in Kairi’s case), so where have they seen it? Sora licks his lips. Is he that unobservant?

When he speaks again, Kakashi’s on his feet, supported by his crutches like a particularly grey scarecrow. “Great!” He crinkles his visible eye. Does he crinkle the hidden one too, or is he that fake and lazy? “Then, you’ll learn it!”

“Not that I don’t want to, of course,” Kairi interjects, smile dimming but still there. “But will that help us fight against Zabuza? Wouldn’t it be better to teach us something flashy to at least be decoys?” 

“No.” Kakashi’s voice has turned serious again, and Sora shudders. Being in this situation has really worsened Kakashi’s stress levels and management over it, huh? “You won’t be decoys anymore. I...” Kakashi hesitates. ...Wait. _Kakashi_ hesitates? Really, what’s happened to their sensei? Maybe Sora’s in a parallel world; that would explain it. “I apologise for the fight against Momochi.”

Riku blinks. “What happened in that fight?”

“You had to save me and---”

Snorting, Riku crosses his arms. A smile tugs at Sora’s lips. “Well, yeah, and you had to save our asses, too. That’s what a team does. So if you’re going to apologise for that, we’ll have to apologise too.”

“You don’t understand,” Kakashi says quickly. Is Sora’s brain lying to him or is his eye a little bit wider? “I’m your sensei and Momochi was a jounin --- one of Kirigakure’s most famous ones. You shouldn’t have had to look at him in the eyes, let alone fight him. I’ve… failed you.”

Kakashi’s head isn’t hanging low, but it’s a near thing and Sora won’t allow it. “Sensei, you haven’t failed us!” he says, and laughs when it turns out they three have said it at the same time. “See? We all agree. And let me finish!” he adds, when Kakashi looks like he’s about to argue. “Okay, so _maybe_ you slipped in that fight and _maybe_ it’s your job to protect us, but you aren’t perfect, sensei, and we aren’t that weak. We are alive, right? And that what matters.”

Kakashi still looks doubtful, but not enough for Sora to press on, so he doesn’t. When no one else adds anything to the conversation, Kakashi sighs and changes the topic. “So, are you ready to learn?”

As always, Kairi answers first. “Hell yeah!”

“Language.”

Kairi and Sora take to tree walking with enthusiasm, though not with a lot of talent.

The first afternoon is spent stepping into a tree and crashing into the ground with enough force it’s no surprise they haven’t broken a shoulder yet. They don’t give up, no matter how much they complain and moch each other, and by the end of the third day, they can wobble up to the top of the tree. There’s still a lot to practice, but Kakashi can certainly say his cute little students are progressing at an adequate pace.

...Well, at least two out of three.

For some reason, Riku has spent all three afternoons, sitting, cross-legged, at the base of his tree, eyes closed as if meditating. When Kakashi had approached him to ask, on the dawn of the first day, he’d cracked one eye open, stared at him, and closed it again. He has a feeling that had been some kind of test, and one he had failed. As a former valedictorian, Kakashi’s kind of offended, but he doesn’t press.

That doesn’t mean he shouldn’t. Really, the boy has wasted three entire days of training, with a rogue jounin breathing in their necks. It’s one thing to meditate and settle your chakra, but it’s another to waste time this way.

“Riku,” he says, finally, in the morning of the fourth day. Conveniently, this time, it’s Riku who’s woken up first, and the rest of his cute little students are snoring away in their futons. “Why aren’t you doing the tree walking exercise?” _With a jounin threatening us_ , he doesn’t say, because he doesn’t want to start that pressuring.

Riku’s posture, that had previously been relaxed, sleepy, closes in on itself so fast it gives Kakashi recoil. Where his eyes were half-lidded, they’re narrowed; where his mouth was quirked into a smile, now it’s pressed together. Kakashi doesn’t blink, because it’s not the time to be so obviously surprised, but he kid of wants to. What he’s asking isn’t that personal… is it?

“I didn’t want to,” Riku says simply. His tone obviously transmits _Don’t ask anymore_ , but Kakashi is a sensei, and he has left the topic alone for too much. Riku seems to read Kakashi’s thoughts (when has he become that obvious?), because he sighs, tension lines softening, and adds, “Besides, I’ve been practising.”

Kakashi raises his eyebrow. “Practising what?”

“Concentration. And hearing.” Oh, so that’s why he twitched so weirdly every time Kairi or Sora slammed against the ground. “I - don’t need to practise chakra.” And to avoid Kakashi asking anymore, Riku kicks Sora in the side, who wakes up with a gasp.

He looks around, and when he founds Riku, Sora gapes at him with the most betrayed look Kakashi’s seen in a face, topping even that one time he didn’t accept Gai’s challenge. He’s even teary-eyed. “RIKU...!”

Riku smirks, all tension from earlier vanished as if it had never been there. “Sorry, sorry. I just wanted to see your betrayed face.”

“Ri - _ku_ …”

As Sora and Kairi have already gotten the hang of tree walking and Riku hasn’t touched a tree since they left Konoha (or maybe not even then), Kakashi decides to teach them some genjutsu --- well, tries to, but Riku makes a face and he swiftly changes the topic to taijutsu. Which he doesn't know how he’s going to teach, what with being with crutches and all, but whatever, he’ll find a way.

“Why don’t we spar and you correct us?” Kairi suggests, clearly reading his mind, and again: when has he gotten that obvious? With three fourths of his face covered, one would think his expressions would be unreadable. Is his right eye that expressive? She cracks her knuckles. “I want to pummel Riku to the ground for waking me up!”

Sora glares at Riku, whose lips quirk into a smile. “Yeah.” 

“Maa, maa,” Kakashi says, and would do calming hands if he weren’t in crutches. “Don’t get violent, my cute little students. Peace is always the answer. ...Really, Kairi, you don’t need to raise your eyebrows at me that way, it was a joke.” He coughs. “Anyways, I like your idea. Let’s do it! A three versus three, no hiding in trees, fight in a clearing, etcetera, etcetera. Go!”

He’s given all that speech to throw them off the moment he said go, but sadly, they’re quick-witted and don’t hesitate for a moment to jump into battle. Kakashi wipes a tear from his eye. It’s moving, how eager the younger generations are to punch each other dumb. Truly moving.

As they promised, Kairi and Sora are vicious and aim for Riku --- for the weakest parts of Riku, in fact. Throat, nose and groin all get hurt in the melee --- even eyes, when Sora throws a fisrtful of ground to Riku’s ---, at least until Kairi betrays Sora by pushing him in the trajectory of one of Riku’s punches. He gasps and points at her,, scowling “You traitor!”

Kairi snickers. “All’s fair in love and war!”

“Well, since now, there’s neither of those in this relationship---” Sora ducks as Riku throws a punch straight at his face. When he straightens up, there’s a dark aura surrounding him. Aw, baby’s first killing intent. “Ohohohoho, you’ll see. I swear I’ll make you _pay_.”

“Kids, kids,” says Kakashi from where he’s sitting on a tree, at a prudent distance from the fight. “Don’t speak so much during a fight. It’ll only serve to make your location known, and you’re not powerful enough or close enough to most enemies to discomfit them with words.”

“Yes, sensei,” the chorus, and the fight restarts. It lasts until the sun sets and his cute little students are beaten to the ground by each other. At least, they’re improving their forms, even if they spend thrice as more time in their way back to Tazuna’s house thanks to their bruised legs.

Suddenly, it’s the seventh day, and they’re facing Momochi. Well, more exactly _Kakashi_ ’s facing him, while his students are against Momochi’s student, a boy with the Hyouton, which is great for exactly zero reasons. His students don’t seem worried, but then again, when are they? It’s not a great relief, to say the least, not with their survival instincts.

A clone of his has evacuated Tazuna and the rest of the bridge builders, because the mission comes first (he would know), so they have to end things quickly before someone can finish their side of the job.

That’s why he lunges at Momochi without bothering with the initial chitchat. Certainly not because he’s worried for his kids. Of course not. They can handle themselves perfectly well, and it’s a three versus one, there’s no way they’d lose.

As Kakashi throws the first attack, Momochi smirks and the grip on his sword turns looser, more relaxed as it almost cuts Kakashi’s hand off. He’s ready for that move, though, and manages to both salvage his appendix and take the first blood. Momochi growls and slams his sword against him. 

During the fight, Kakashi keeps an ear out for his students’ brawl --- until a giant dome of ice blocks his sight, of course. He can’t ignore the twisting in his gut, but he repeats the words like a mantra. _They are strong and can hold their own, they are strong and can hold their own, they are strong and can hold their own_ …

It works --- just a little, enough to focus on his own battle. That doesn’t mean his heart doesn’t skip a beat every time there’s a flare of chakra or a muffled scream. Those times, Momochi takes advantage of his distraction to attack, but Kakashi isn’t the Sharingan Nin for anything, and he manages to dodge. Not for the first time, he finds himself thanking Obito.

However, not even their brawl keeps going when the ice barrier breaks into tiny pieces, smaller than raindrops. They cover the floor and the air like fairy dust, and the way they reflect the sun fills Kakashi with an emotion he cannot describe. He compartmentalises it, because there’s a dead body at their students’ feet and someone’s just had their first kill. Kakashi would sigh if he weren’t next to an enemy, as still and unbreathing as they are --- he’s not good with psychology stuff.

Sora kneels next to the body with a somber expression: a grimace, coupled with dark, pained eyes. He’s flanked by Kairi and Riku, similar expressions on their faces but somehow colder, as he closes the body’s glassy eyes, and mutters, almost inaudibly but enough for Kakashi’s sharp ears to pick, “I’m sorry. Rest in peace.”

Welp, it looks like they have a winner. The moment this battle ends, Kakashi’ll have to have a long nice chat about duty and mortality with his late sensei’s son. How fun.

It doesn’t take long for Momochi to die.

Even though he denies it until his very last breath, Momochi loves --- _loved_ his student. Kakashi knows it, feels it, because the look in that man’s eyes was the same one he sees in the mirror every day: fondness, determination, desperation. And even without that factor, Momochi died protecting the boy’s honour, and that’s telling enough on its own. 

Anyways, the mission is dispatched, and the only reason they still aren’t on the way home is because his cute little students have insisted on staying until the bridge is completed. And on helping. They have insisted on helping, when Riku has broken a wrist, Kairi can’t see from one eye and Sora’s entire left leg is unusable for the moment. 

For a fight against a Hyouton user, it’s not a bad result, but Kakashi still worries. When he told them they should get checked by a medic, Sora grinned and said they already had been and that their injuries wouldn’t be permanent, but _still_.

Days pass and Kakashi still doesn’t talk to Sora about, you know, having killed and all. He keeps making excuses for himself: Sora seems fine, Sora still smiles, Sora eats everything on his plate, Sora sleeps well… But really, he should know better than anyone that grief is easy to push down and bury under literally any other feeling --- at least, until it explodes in your face.

Thankfully, Sora takes the decision away from him. 

“Um, Kakashi-sensei?” he says, from under the frame of the door to Kakashi’s room, standing thanks to one of his old crutches. Kakashi nods at him to continue. “Kairi told you wanted to speak with me.”

Ah, Kairi. She would do well in Torture and Interrogation with that skill for reading and manipulating people. Lesser people would be scared. 

“Yes, I did,” Kakashi says, and motions for him to go in. Sora does, confusion clear on his face, and Kakashi finds his mind his blank. How exactly does he start this conversation with a thirteen-year-old? Are you okay about killing someone? Hey, having fun? I remember you being covered in blood --- how did you feel when scrubbing it out?

A silence settles over them while Kakashi thinks. Sora squirms and breaks it. “So,” he says, smiling awkwardly, “what is it?”

Kakashi sighs and decides to pull the bandage-aid all at once. “You killed someone, right?”

“...Yes.” The words are clipped and cautious, as is his posture. The topic of conversation must have caught him off-guard, because Sora doesn’t really spell out his non-cheerful expressions unless he’s surprised. “Why?”

Ugh, it’s physically painful to ask. “...How - how do you feel about it?”

“Fine,” Sora says quickly, and amends at Kakashi’s raised eyebrow, “Okay, not fine, but close enough. It’s not that I don’t regret it! But it was a kill or be killed situation and - I don’t think there was another way. I can’t remedy his death, and I don’t really think he’d want me to, even if I could, not when he died for his master. So I can only try to remember him and move on.”

Mid-rant, those words start to feel lass like Sora’s speaking about himself and more like they’re trying to cheer Kakashi up --- at least, based on how his eyes have gone from flickering to boring into his soul. How cute.

“How can we thank you for all you’ve done for us?” said Tazuna one day, flanked by kneeling hordes of builders. His straw hat is twisted tightly in his hands, who wring it and unwring it with every breath. “We wouldn’t have finished the bridge without you.”

Kakashi decides to leave the answer to his cute little students, because it’s the reward they deserve after such a mission, such an adventure, such a youthful display of courage and --- okay, okay, he just doesn’t know what to say, and doesn’t feel like bullshitting something right now, at seven in the morning and the day before they have to go back to Konoha. 

They don’t even waver. As always, it’s Kairi who speaks first, all smiles and sweetness, but not without first exchanging glances which Kakashi _swears_ are telepathical. “Does the bridge have a name?”

“...No.”

“Then, we’ll name it!” And, as one, they chorus the name of the bridge. Telepaths. They’re telepaths.

As they wave goodbye to the Great Destiny Bridge (and what a cheesy, poetical name, Kakashi must add), Kakashi allows himself to smile --- truly, honestly smile. Really, he couldn’t have asked for a better team than this. 

“Chunin exams? So soon?”

Kairi puts a hand on Sora’s mouth and shushes him. “Don’t jinx us, dummy!” She turns to Kakashi and grabs all three registration forms from his hand. Although Riku doesn’t let his expression waver, amusement curls low in his stomach --- Kairi, always so impatient (he ignores the hypocrisy of that statement). “Thanks, sensei! We’ll be there!”

Kakashi looks ready to say something, but apparently he rethinks it and doesn’t. His mind is incomprehensible to normal people, so Riku can’t even fathom what he was about to say. His only hope would have been Kairi, but she’s pretty occupied bickering with Sora (here, he exchanges a long--suffering look with Kakashi), so now he’ll be curious forever.

Riku stops walking when he reaches the final step.

There’s a genjutsu in the second floor --- or, at least, he thinks there is, if the smell of chakra polluting the air is anything to go by. Riku stares at the sign over the door, which clearly says 203, and not 303 as the people surrounding it are saying --- er, screaming. At his side, Kairi and Sora have stopped when he did, and are looking at him with curious eyes. They haven’t practised genjutsu much, as Riku is the unquestionable best of them at it, and it shows.

He points at the ceiling, and they catch the drift without needing words, which is great, because in Konoha, walls have ears. And noses and mouths and eyes, but whatever. They climb the stairs to the third floor.

“Hi, Kakashi-sensei!” Sora chirps when they reach the door 303. Their teacher is leaning against a nearby wall, reading that porn book without a care in the world. After seeing it so many times, Riku has lost the ability to care, but that doesn’t mean Kakashi should be doing it. 

“Hello, my cute little students.” Kakashi pushes himself straight off the wall, and smiles at them. It’s still a fake smile, but at least it’s not the sharp curve his mouth twisted into when they first met. “I see you’re here early. Ready for your exams?”

“We were born ready,” Kairi answers, and kicks the door open like the dramatic brat she is.

Riku can’t keep his lips from grinning when the room falls into an eerie silence, and Sora actually bursts into laughter. There’s no way to miss how Kairi’s lips twitch or how her eyes shine with amusement, but she steps in, unrelentless, like a soldier marching to a war they know they’re going to win.

Riku shrugs and follows her, Sora hot on his heels. It’s not like she’s wrong.

Random people try to talk to them, but with a few dazzling smiles from Kairi and a lot of sharp refusals from Riku, they go away with the tail in between their legs. A particular guy, a boy with gray hair and round glasses, looks particularly put out as they refuse all his advances, but hey! Fuck him. The three of them can win against anything, and they have no need of manipulating, backstabbing allies to help them.

Well, there’s one person they don’t ignore...

“Kairi-san! Kaaaaaaaaairi-san!”

Riku doesn’t need to look away from the kunai he’s sharpening to know who’s speaking. He saw Lee earlier, amongst the crowd surrounding room 203, and he had supposed he wouldn’t be seeing the green boy in these exams. He sighs --- hopefully, there won’t be too much shouting,

“Yes, Lee?” Kairi says, in that sweet tone she saves for all the people she likes, except Sora and him. He kind of misses that about Destiny Islands; once sweet Kairi leaves, there’s no coming back. Riku wouldn’t change the relationship they have now for anything in the world, even if they told him Kairi would stop teasing him mercilessly, but hey, he can dream.

Even though Lee is still, his sheer presence gives off fire, energy, and it chills Riku to the core --- how can someone like this exist and still be alive? And how can they be so… considerate? He doesn’t fit with all the people Riku’s known throughout both his lives. Point in case, a fourteen-year-old, thousand of piercing glares fixed on him, asking public enemy number three, “How are you?!”

“Aw, so polite.” She smiles, real-smiles, not-fake-smiles, at him. “I’m fine, what about you?”

“Thank you for asking, Kairi-san! I’m rEADY FOR THIS YOUTHFUL ENDEAVOUR AND WE---” A fist connects with Lee’s head, and that startles him enough to stop shouting. Riku will be forever thankful to the brown-haired girl connected to the hand --- his ears are already ringing, and Lee wasn’t even five seconds into the rant.

Riku is not nothing if not a good thanker --- _and_ , more importantly, he’s bored out of his mind. He pockets his kunai, walks up to the girl and kneels before her. “Thanks,” he says, quietly but effusively, and the girl blinks at him slowly. Sora guffaws in the background. “I’ll be forever glad---”

A sharp cough breaks all attempts to be a good person. Riku gets up from the floor --- ew, his knees have dirtied, does no one clean this floor? --- and faces a big, ugly man, who’s sneering at them like they are no better than shit stuck to his sole. It’s like being back home.

“If you’re finished with your humiliating display, Romeo,” the man says, eyes lingering on him. Riku nods, lips twisting into a frown, and seconds later, into a wry smile. Finally. “Then, we will start with the first test.”

After a long, mildly intimidating explanation about how they have to do an exam and if they fail they lose, it starts.

Inconveniently, Riku sits far from Kairi and Sora. Of course, this is not a coincidence, but it’s still a pain. However, there’s one thing that’s worse than that. Guess who’s sitting next to him, tongue sticking out of his mouth in concentration and bushy eyebrows forming a frown as he stares at his paper? Yeah, Rock Lee, in all his splendor.

Riku sighs and drags his eyes towards his own paper. Time is ticking on and he has to start to fill it one of these days.

Five minutes later, life finds him knocking his head on his table. What the hell is this exam? What the hell are mathematics? Who thinks it’s a good idea to make some ninja learn about numbers? Riku is surrounded by incompetent idiots, who don’t think about the consequences of what they do, and follow their leader like lambs and… and...

...Okay, that’s it, the melodrama is done. Riku, focus.

Discreetly, he looks at Sora, who’s staring at the paper like it’s just killed his firstborn. Although it’s a really, really, _really_ cute expression --- all of Sora’s are, honestly ---, Riku manages to drag his eyes away and see what Kairi’s doing. Or, better said, what she’s not doing, because if you sleep on your desk, you’re not doing a lot of things.

Riku trusts Kairi, though, and if Kairi is doing nothing, then the answer to this exam is to do nothing (and besides, if neither he nor Sora knows how to answer any questions, they’ve failed anyway even if Kairi’s answered the questions at a supersonic speed) --- she’ll explain the logic later. 

With that thought, Riku rests his head on his limp arms, and sleeps.

“---You pass.”

Those magic words are enough for Riku to snap his eyes open and raise his head from his arms. The instructor of the first test is glaring at him something mean, but Riku yawns and stretches until he regains his everything. Thirteen-years-old and his shoulders are already popping --- what an old man he is. Pop, pop, pop.

Once he’s satisfied with the way his body doesn’t crack or hurt, he turns to the instructor and watches as he gives a speech about whatever. His mouth moves, but for the life of him, Riku can’t figure out what he’s saying. Ugh, abort, abort, stop listening. What a bore.

Hey, is the room way emptier than before or is it Riku’s imagination? He does a headcount: one, five, ten, fifteen, twenty, twenty-seven. Huh. Riku’s must have missed a real party if two thirds of the genin have left. He’ll ask Kairi or Sora later.

...Orrrrrr not, as they’re both sleeping on their tables. Really, what an impression they’re giving, sprawled and snoring. Riku sighs --- he has to pull the team’s reputation up all on his own. What a pair of country bumpkins.

The window breaks. Kairi and Sora startle awake just as a purple-haired woman rolls a blackboard inside with a shit-eating grin adorning her sharp face.

...Alright. Each to his own, he guesses.

“So, what was the key to the exam?” Sora asks Kairi as he scrawls his signature in the death certificate. His brow is furrowed and it’s the cutest expression Riku’s ever seen since he last saw Sora. “I couldn’t answer any questions at all. And what’s mathematics?”

Kairi shrugs, her eyes skimming the paper. “Who knows. And I don’t know what the point of it was. I just figured that if I didn’t, you guys wouldn’t either, so we would fail anyways. Good thing we didn’t, huh?” She smacks her lips together. “Aw, I shouldn’t have slept earlier, now I’m all sluggish.”

“Yeah, me too.”

Riku’s paper is left aside on a table, already signed without hesitation. They won’t die, won’t even be close to it, so what’s the big deal?

He should stop jinxing the team.

(As the darkness, the power, envelops him, Riku sees _him_ , enveloped in malice and evil and the suffering of his victims. The screams twirl around him, around his head, and Riku can’t help but join them. His heart slams against his ribcage with every beat, his eyes are blinded with every pulse, his head is writhing from immeasurable _pain_ \---)

“Fuck,” Kairi breaths as she drops to her knees, eyes dilated and staring at nothing. “ _Fuck_.”

He rather agrees.

Sora is silent, pressed to Riku’s side, and on a normal day he would enjoy it, would try to push down his blush to smirk, but this isn’t a normal day. Now, he can just watch as his Adam’s apple bobs with each gasping breath, as his eyes darken and deaden, as his face overlaps with---

There’s a clack of teeth from the snake guy’s (?) area, Riku almost has no time to look before the person is upon him, jaws so wide open he can see his throat, and fangs glinting with the bit of sunlight that passes through the trees. Unprompted, Riku’s brain calls out _kinky_ , and the only reason he doesn’t choke on a laugh is because his muscles are locked up.

His breath gets caught in his lungs. Then, everything happens very quickly. 

The mouth starts to close in on Riku’s neck, and all he can do is snap his eyes shut and pray it doesn’t hurt. But the pain doesn’t come, just a pressure on his side, and when Riku opens his eyes again, he’s sprawled on the floor, and Sora --- that self-sacrificial, dramatic idiot --- is food for snakes. Riku’s mind, brain and body short-circuits and he’s too far to do something.

“Sora…” he half sobs, half chokes out, as Sora’s face twists into a pained grimace.

Thankfully, _thankfully_ , Kairi manages to get up on shaky legs and, taking advantage of his distraction what with eating Sora, stabs the fucker in his elongated neck. Blood pours out like a geyser, splattering everyone and everywhere, and the guy lets go and falls limp to the floor just in time for Riku to crawl to Sora’s side and grab him as his legs give out. 

“It hurtsssss…” Sora slurs, cradling his head in the curve of Riku’s neck. He resists the reflex to draw back because shit, he’s boiling hot --- in both senses, but mostly in the literal one right now. Riku’s neck is going to melt if Sora keeps pressing his forehead there, but he can’t bring himself to push him away.

Instead, he loops his free arm under Sora’s knees, secures the one surrounding his torso, and lifts him up. 

Kairi has already taken the guy’s scroll and pocketed it, so they’re good to sprint to the tower. Oh, wait, there’s one thing left to do --- he walks up to the hopefully dead body and kicks his jaw as if it’s a football. There’s a CRRRACK! but, sadly, the head doesn’t detach from the body and slam into a nearby tree. It’s satisfying enough, so Riku turns to Kairi --- who still has that far-away look in her eyes, though it’s better than before --- and they start running to the tower.

“Look,” the chunin spits for the fourth time, rubbing his temples. Unprompted fury sits low on Riku’s stomach. “I can’t help you and I can’t heal you. It’s against the rules. It would be pretty unfair on those who end up with less injuries if everyone was healed, wouldn’t it? Go to your supposed places and hope _he_ doesn’t die, okay, kids?”

Riku’s fingers brush the handle of a kunai, his mind tugging to call the keyblade forth. This prejudiced asshole will pay if it’s the last thing he does. Really, he wants to be surprised about this, but Konoha’s always been a hellhole. For one good person, there’s a thousand bad people.

Before he can do anything, though, Kairi grabs his wrist, and rubs it --- a signal for _wait!_ Then, she steps forward and into the chunin’s personal space and, without looking away from his eyes, she says, very, very calmly, “Disqualify us, then, you sack of shit.”

The chunin’s eyes widen and narrow in the space of a second. “Mind your manners, little---” The man freezes when he sees something behind them and man, if it’s the snake fucker Riku’s going to have a heart attack. Slowly, very slowly, extremely slowly, he turns around and---

Thank God, it’s Kakashi. 

“Riku. Kairi,” he says, and the glance he throws around is enough to make them explain what’s happening and, reluctantly, what happened in the forest. Riku presses Sora to him harder when he does --- it’s going to be a long time before he can sleep without nightmares after this. Kakashi’s skin goes paler with every word out of their lips, and when they’re finished, his eyes are wide and horrified. He turns the chunin with a bored look, which is as close as Kakashi can come to a glare. “I’ll speak to the hokage about this.”

The chunin wheezes as if someone has just - stolen their first born? Okay, not a good comparison, but whatever. The guy bites his lower lip (Riku smirks) and mumbles, “S-sorry, Hatake-san.”

“Just make sure it doesn’t happen again,” Kakashi says sweetly and opens his arms, looking at Riku expectantly. What…? “Sora.” Oh. Right. That. He’ll get to it right now, when he mentalises himself iiiiiiin one second. Yeah.

It’s not that he _wants_ to hand Sora to anyone, but Kakashi is reliable, and, with a bit of effort, Riku manages to unstick Sora from his side and give him to Kakashi, ignoring the coldness now that the heatsource is gone.

Once Kakashi is gone and the chunin is fretting too much to notice them does Kairi loop her arm around Riku’s. “So…” she begins, as they start walking towards the waiting room, “does that mean we’re not disqualified?”

Riku shrugs, leans into her. “Guess not.”

“Oh. Cool.”

Sora comes back three hours later. Although maybe _comes_ doesn’t express the sheer tiredness in his gait, the way his eyes are closed even as he drags himself towards them without hesitation. When they ask him what happened, his voice is slurred and they only understand “seals” and “hurts”. 

There’s no chance to ask more, though, because the moment he’s close to them, Sora proceeds to fall asleep on Riku’s lap. There’s a pool of warmth coiling in the low of his stomach, but Riku ignores it, ignores Kairi’s giggles, and plays with Sora’s rough, unkempt, charming hair.

The first round of the third test isn’t very difficult, even with Sora’s… injuries. Kairi is against some girl that stalked Riku when they attended the academy and wins easily; Riku is against some nameless grunt who, while not as easy as Kairi’s girl, doesn’t last through three consecutive elbows at the chin; Sora fights against another old classmate, a guy with a dog, and even through pain and a dizzy head, he manages to trip in the exact second to dig his heel into the guy’s chin and knock him out.

But even if their matches are uneventful, that doesn’t mean others are. Case in point: Gaara vs. Rock Lee. 

Riku feels more than watches Kairi tense at his side as the match progresses: her fingers drum against the floor, her breathing gets more jagged, killing intent grows. Just when one of Riku’s hands is about to leave Sora’s hair (he’s fallen asleep on his lap again) to grasp hers, the carnage starts. 

“What the fuck,” Kairi spits, staring at the fight with unreadable wide eyes. “What the _fuck._ ”

Riku’s hand stills. She is already up, jumping over the railing and into the bloodbath, scowling something fierce. The soles of her sandals slam against the floor and, before anyone can jump in to stop her (not that anyone could, not when she’s on a rampage like this), she stomps up to Gaara.

“Don’t you have any _respect_?” She digs her finger in his chest once, twice, thrice. Grains of sand fall out with each jab, but Gaara doesn’t react, just stares at her with a mixture of confusion and bloodlust. Riku’s fingers twitch. Kairi’s eyes are inspecting his entire body as she speaks, so she’s planning something. “This is a - a tourney, and he fought you with all he had. You’ve won, isn’t that enough?”

Gaara stares at her and slowly, very slowly, his mouth curls into an open-mouthed grin, full of fury, satisfaction, denigration. When he speaks, Gaara’s voice is quiet and raspy, but no less deranged than his face, “No. I want him to die.”

Between a blink and the next, Kairi’s fingers stop jabbing Gaara’s chest and stick into his eyes, apparently the only thing not protected by a sand barrier. Suddenly, all the sand covering Rock Lee drops to the floor as Gaara steps back, hands covering his eyes and screaming. When he uncovers them, they’re red, but their pupils are dilated, and the faint demonic chakra that comes faintly from Sora is surrounding him whole, almost devouring him. 

“I’ll kill you! I’ll KILL YOU!” he snaps, crouching four-legged like an animal about to lunge. Riku grabs a kunai.

Curling her fingers in a way that means she’s ready to call her keyblade, Kairi just smiles. “You can try.”

Gaara screams his throat sore, but before he can move, Kakashi, Lee’s teacher and Gaara’s one are already in the arena, stopping him, and more jounin look ready to jump at a moment’s notice. There’s a flurry of moves, and, in a second, Gaara’s unconscious on his teacher’s arms and Kairi’s again standing next to Riku, Kakashi’s hand digging in her shoulder.

“Interfering with another’s match means instant disqualification,” Kakashi says, half-lidded eyes set on the arena. His tone of voice is nonchalant, uncaring even, but he must be kind of bitter. Riku certainly is --- saving your comrades is exactly what Konoha values, and they shouldn’t disqualify people for that, not even if it causes a political incident. 

Kairi purses her lips together. “I know.”

Sora continues sleeping on. 

“Hey---”

“What,” the fox growls, making Sora’s lips twitch, “the fuck do you want now?”

In one breath, he says: “I want you to tell me your name. And before you refuse, look: you’re stuck with me. I’m not going to die soon, ‘cause I have amazingly strong friends who will protect me, and I’m strong on my own right, so we should try to get along. Unless you want to be bitter and bored all your life, of course, but I don’t thing you want that.” Hopefully, the fox won’t throw him out for this. “Otherwise, you wouldn’t have spoken to me in first place.”

There’s a silence, one Sora’s a bit scared about breaking --- this might be the point of inflexion in their relationship, after all, and if it’s a bust… Well, he might as well forget about being a demon cage, because said demon won’t speak to him again. He tries not to squirm under the their gaze, but it’s a no go: this is too important for him to hide his feelings.

“...If I did tell you my name,” they finally begin, “your ears would fall off.”

And okay, it’s not the best possible answer, but it’s not the worst either, so Sora can’t help but grin. And push his luck a little: “Aw, so you’re worried about me! How cute.”

The fox growls, but they don’t kick him out, so it’s a win.

“You want to train me?” Riku asks, bewildered. “As in, _alone_?”

Kakashi stares at him for a long second, silent. He’s probably not expecting opposition but - they’re a team, Sora, Kairi and him, and he can’t leave them alone to train somewhere else. It’s not fair, even if Kairi’s been (unfairly) disqualified and Sora’s still recovering from the mark that guy left on him. Which, by the way, what happened with him? Is he dead? Hopefully he is.

Kakashi recovers quickly, though, breaking Riku out from his thoughts. “You are better suited to my skill set,” he says, like a liar. Or, better said, like an ignorant.

“No, I’m not.” Riku frowns. How does he go about explaining this without really explaining it? “Sora’s the one with lightning affinity. And as for the sharingan… I probably can’t use it.” If he didn’t awaken it when he saw the bodies of all his family splattered with blood, glassy eyes fixed into him, mouths curling around a scream--- there’s no way in hell he can awaken it in any other way.

Kakashi’s mouth does a little twist, and the conversation dies a swift death. Everyone is so uncomfortable when thinking about a traditional wife cheating on their husband (which, now that he thinks about it, may be a factor into why his team is hated) that they never, ever look any deeper. It’s for the better, at least --- Riku would not stand _anyone_ trying to coddle him for not being able to use chakra.

Walking through the village as a team is not a new experience --- or a particularly pleasant one. Although breathing pure air is relaxing and the sound of rustling leaves throws Riku back to afternoons lazing around in Destiny Islands, people stare at them, and it’s seriously not worth it. Ah, what he wouldn’t give to be discreet.

Or to have discreet friends.

“OH. MY. GOSH,” Kairi screeches, her starry eyes settled on some white-haired old man who’s about to go into the communal bath. The stares become glares, and Riku sighs. “OH MY GOSH! IT’S JIRAIYA! I’M YOUR NUMBER ONE FAN.”

At the mention of what must be his name, the old guy stops and looks around like a hunter looking for their prey. Sora grabs Kairi’s sleeve and tries to tug her away, but when Kairi’s on a mission, nothing can stop her. She waves exaggeratedly until she catches the guy’s eye, and approaches him when she does. 

Riku and Sora exchange familiar glances. They say: _must we follow her? ...We must_. And that’s what they do.

“Hello, little miss.” He crouches to be face to face with her, smiling in a seriously creepy way, the kind that says _I have just met you but I would treat you like my granddaughter and touch you way more than I should_. Riku resists the urge to get between him and Kairi. “I’m glad youngsters these days know how to appreciate art!” He laughs heartily as if he’s just made the best joke ever, and Riku feels his face crumple as if he’s just eaten a lemon. “So, what’s your favourite book?”

“Oh, your books? No, no, no!” She wags her finger in the old man’s face, making him lose his balance. Watching him fall flat on his ass: satisfying. “I like your,” her eyes shine, and, almost reverently: “ spy network.”

“...Huh?”

“I could learn _so_ much from you.”

Naturally, she wins an apprenticeship in less than ten minutes.

“Kairi-san…!”

Lee grins at her from his bed, his head practically swallowed by the pillow. His maimed leg rests on a mountain of cushions, and there’s an IV sticking out of his arm. In spite of that, his grin is not fake, not even one shred, and that’s why when Kairi speaks, it’s choked out: “Yes, Lee?”

“Thanks for helping me out the other day!” He flashes her a shaky thumbs-up. “Gai-sensei told me you Youthfully fought Gaara-san for me!”

Kairi looks away. The moment was epic, yes, but it didn’t do anything --- well, other than disqualify her, of course. If it were coming from a person other than Lee, she would have thought they were pulling her leg or pitifully lying to make her feel better. As it is, though, it’s obvious Lee believes it --- and that’s what makes her feel guilty the most.

Lee won’t appreciate her not believing him, she knows, so she doesn’t say anything that’s running through her mind. Instead, she just smiles at him and returns the thumbs-up.

The finals of the tournament go to hell almost as soon as they start.

It’s almost amazing how fast everything happens. First, Riku’s waiting for his match to start, and, on the next second, the guy whom Kairi poked his eyes out is becoming a demon and foreign ninja are invading the village. Oh, and apparently there’s a genjutsu, because everyone but the jounin is falling asleep. 

He pinches Kairi and Sora awake. “Wake up, you idiots. We’re being invaded.”

Kairi’s eyes snap open, while Sora’s take their sweet time, fluttering and everything. “We’re being what?” she says, and the grin of her face is kind of terrifying. “Has finally someone realised this totalitarian state is being detrimental for the people it’s meant to serve?”

“Nah.” Riku tilts his head, shrugs his shoulder. “I think it’s just Suna.”

“Ow.”

“People are dying, though. Civilians,” Sora says, and it’s earnest even through his yawn. “So we have to stop it.”

“Yeah, yeah,” they say at the same time, and just then, Kakashi appears to tell them what to do and how to help. It’s the best idea ever --- three genin, fighting against one powerful ancient demon. There’s no way it can go wrong.

There’s some ninja on the way to the demon, but Sora, Kairi and him defeat them almost embarrassingly easily. Really, the old tactic of Sora distracting them with faked airheadedness, Riku distracting them with true insults, and Kairi striking from behind should fail a lot, especially against ninja, but it never, ever does.

Anyways, they arrive to the sand guy Kairi hit in no time, but by then, he’s already a giant tanuki. And this seems to awaken something --- or… someone --- within Sora, because one second he’s standing there, gaping at the sand demon, and the other he’s being covered by a monstrous chakra cloak, his teeth sharpening, his eyes turning feral. 

And his chakra - it really is something. It crashes and looms over them, almost tangible, throwing him back to when he was engulfed by darkness --- something tempting, frightening, disgusting. The chakra from the Suna guy isn’t any better, and when they _slam_ into each other---

When they do that---

When they---

Riku faints.

“Hey,” Sora says, and when the fox answers with a grumpy grumble (they’re getting better!), “thanks for helping me out there. Like, really. Thank you.”

When he’d asked the fox for help in that fight, he’d half expected to be turned down. It was a surprise, then, when the fox agreed after a long, long (long long) silence, but honestly, he has to admit he’s won the fight thanks to him. Like, yes, _maybe_ they would have won even without his help, but maybe not, and they’d ended up bad enough (Riku unconscious, Sora unconscious, and who knows how Kairi is) to think about how they’d have ended up with even more disadvantage.

Another grumble. The fox’s not looking at him, but to the ceiling, and no matter how much Sora follows its line of vision --- there’s nothing there. But a demon as proud as this wouldn’t avoid anyone’s eyes, so… what’s happening? Is this thoughtfulness or embarrassment?

The silence stretches on, and Sora doesn’t dare break it --- it feels like a sacrilege to even breath, let alone speak. He lets the fox muse at his pleasure, and, patiently, he waits. 

And eventually, the fox speaks.

“...My name is Kurama.”

For a moment, Sora stays still, uncomprehending. The fox --- Kurama? --- never whispers, never speaks in a voice lower than a grumble. That such an enormous being, whose nail is bigger than Sora’s entire body, has decided to do exactly that takes his attention away from what it’s really said. At least, at first.

Then, Sora registers the words and staggers back from the sheer surprise. What the hell. What the _hell_. Is Kurama just a new word he doesn’t understand? An insult? Has it really just told him his name? It can’t have… right? Right? Isn’t Sora just losing his mind? It’s more likely than a reticent demon having conceded something as important as his name. Without needing prompting. 

What the hell.

He almost blurts it out, but it doesn’t feel like the moment. The f - ...Kurama is looking at him with unreadable eyes, reading into his very soul, and this is so very clearly a test that Sora suddenly feels anxious about not having studied. He has to act natural. ...How does one do that again?

Ah, to hell with it. Sora locks eyes with Kurama and his lips curl into the trues smile he can muster through the surprise --- which, let it be said, it’s a big damn smile.

Riku wakes up to a white ceiling. The big, pounding headache immediately wants to make him go to sleep again. 

“Riku?” It’s a croak, almost embarrassing to hear from how heartfelt it is, but the voice is unmistakable: Shisui, looking as if he hasn’t slept in two years. “Please, tell me you’re awake.”

“I’m awake,” he says, and what the fuck? What’s happened to his voice? Why does it hurt to say two words? ...How long has he been asleep for? He asks those alarming questions out loud, and dreads the answer when Shisui grimaces. His cousin hasn’t been this expressive since before the massacre, so this is not exactly a good signal.

“...Two weeks.”

“Two _weeks_?!” Wait. “And why are you wearing a hospital gown? Were you hurt too?”

Shisui’s follow his to the ugly ass gown, and his lips part in surprise. Wow, he must really be out of it if he’s surprised by what he’s wearing. Riku squints, even if the headache doesn’t let him focus a lot. Is he drugged? Sleep-deprived? Why have the nurses let him come here in this state?

On second thought, they probably haven’t --- Shisui is one of the best ninjas in the village, after all, and no restriction is too restrictive for him, especially when he wants to see his hurt little cousin. Although the thought awakens something warm in him, he swiftly squashes it, because disobeying a medics orders is fucking irresponsible, and he should know better. If Sora knew, he would gut him.

“Er…” And then he grins a sheepish grin, and it’s a step closer to his usual cousin. Riku returns a smile just for that, and saves the upcoming lecture for Sora to give. “Maybe?”

“Who?” he asks casually, although he opens his mental hitlist and waits for a name to write just after Xehanort's crossed out one. No one --- and that means _no one_ \--- hurts his family, especially a baby like Shisui (ignoring the fact that he’s physically older). No one. 

Going by the knowing eyes, Shisui has read his thoughts. Riku isn’t embarrassed, refuses to be, but - damn smart people with good eyes. He has more than enough of that with Kairi. “Just a white-haired follower of Orochimaru. Don’t worry, I took care of him.”

He closes the mental hitlist, a bit disappointed. Outwardly, though, he narrows his eyes. “Who’s Orochimaru?”

Shisui blinks, and slowly, almost offensively so, he drags out, “Who’s… Orochimaru…?”

Okay, scratch that almost: Riku _is_ offended. It may be advisable that he didn’t leave Kairi as the only info-knower of the team, but there’s no need to speak at him as if he were a moron just for that --- he’s not Sora. “Yes, I believe that’s what I asked, yes.”

“It’s… He’s a... Like, you know snakes?”

Riku doesn’t like where this is going --- pretty offending places, that is. Does Shisui think he’s stupid, or is he pulling his leg? ...His eyes are amused and his mouth is twitching. Asshole.

At Riku’s hopefully milk-curdling glare, Shisui’s lips give up and curl into a smile. Because Riku is a fucking wet blanket and likes to see his cousin smile, he doesn’t tell him off, but it’s a real temptation for one second there. Sometimes, it would be easier to revert back to his uncaring past self, he thinks, but then he remembers what it was like, and the feeling passes by as if it was never there.

“I know snakes,” he spits, because he’s a wet blanket, but not that much.

Shisui raises his arms placatingly. “Okay, okay, sorry. So, Orochimaru is a guy who looks like a snake, talks like a snake, and smells like a snake, and he’s one of Konoha’s most famous and strongest ninjas. Well, he’s not with Konoha anymore. Unfortunately.”

Ohohoho. It can’t be. They can’t have. “Does he have a long neck, sharp teeth, black hair, androgynous face, and pretty menacing aura? And a tendency for scaring people?”

“...Yes,” Shisui says slowly, carefully. “Why?”

Unbelievable. “Oh, we found him in the Forest of Death. He bit Sora. We killed him.” Although if he’s one of the strongest, it’s difficult to think he died so easily... “Hopefully.”

Shisui’s eyebrows go past his hairline straight into the stratosphere. When he speaks, his pitch does the same: “You did _what_?”

Now who’s being stupid? “We found him. He bit Sora. We killed him. Hope-fu-lly.”

With jounin speed (duh), Shisui’s hands move to rest on his shoulders, fingers digging into his skin with way more strength than necessary. On any other situation, Riku would protest, but Shisui’s eyes search invisible injuries in him so fast, so worried, it makes him feel kind of guilty to have spoken. He’s his last remaining family. Should be more careful with his words so he doesn’t worry him.

“Are you serious?” Shisui’s eyes are flighty, scared. “You’re not pulling my leg, are you?”

And man, now Riku feels guilty. “I’m not,” he says, and moves to grasps Shisui’s hands, unclenching them from his shoulders “But we’re fine.” Well, more or less. The bite mark doesn’t seem to be causing Sora problems, at least. He squeezes his hands. “Don’t worry, Shisui. I’m in front of you, and I’m whole.”

Shisui purses his lips until they turn white, which means there’s still lingering worry, so Riku leans in for a hug. When Shisui returns it, it’s a bit more tighter than necessary, again, but that’s okay. Riku understands.

It turns out that white-haired follower of Orochimaru Shisui killed was attempting against the life of the hokage, and Shisui has saved the geezer. While it’s great that a life hasn’t been forfeited, it’s the hokage’s, who allows people to mistreat Sora, so… Mixed feelings.

Thankfully, even if he’s alive, the hokage’s old, and he decides to retire anyways. But there’s no replacement, because with an approximately hundred-year-old leader in a world where killing supports the entire economy, people are stupid. Really, no successor? Not even a possible candidate?

One day later, when Jiraiya comes to Sora’s and Kairi’s (and sometimes Riku’s but not now because Shisui’s in town), they discover there is a successor, but she doesn’t know it or particularly wants to take the post. In fact, she would kind of prefer Konoha to evaporate. And of course, in true dictatorship fashion, they are tasked with making her return home and be hokage.

Okay, well, Kairi is tasked with it, but they come in a package deal and Senju Tsunade is kind of Sora’s biggest idol, so, in less than an hour, Riku packs everything he needs (a toothbrush, a comb, weapons, and clothing for him and Sora, because he always forgets it and Kairi thinks it’s funny not to remind him), bids Shisui goodbye and hits the road with his team.

They stop at a random town for Jiraiya to perv on people. He doesn’t tell them that last part, but they are curious and mildly good spies. 

“What a sensei.” Sora sighs, watching at the man guffawing with two random standardly pretty women in a shady bar. At Riku’s prompting, they start to walk back to the hotel. “Why did you choose _him_?”

“Well,” Kairi says, covering her mouth with a hand. Her eyes shine in a very concrete way. Uh-oh. Here comes a fangirling rant. “He’s kind of a bad person, but he’s a very, very good spy. He’s network is legendary! Like, you know, people know him ‘cause he’s a sannin and kicks ass, but he’s the kind of loud person that is the most badass when he’s quiet. And although he’s a piece of shit, I want to be badass too.”

They enter the hotel as Sora pats Kairi’s back. “You are already badass.”

They climb up the stairs. Something pricks at Riku’s instincts, but he ignores them in favor of listening to Kairi say, “Not enough. But---”

And then they cross the corner, and Riku finds himself staring into crimson eyes.

The conversation dies a swift death.

Fuck.

Hopefully, he’s lowered his eyes in time. No need to get genjutsu’d after seeing his brother for the first time in ages. Even if he’s accompanied by some random shark guy, he can ask the question that’s been plaguing him since the day of the massacre, since the day he saw Itachi crying on a post after killing their entire family.

And so, crashing through all the silence and tension that’s been surrounding the two groups, he speaks, “You didn’t do it prove yourself, didn’t you?” There’s no need to specify what he’s talking about.

Itachi doesn’t answer, so Riku looks at his face, just under his eyes. Even though it’s as still and emotionless as ever, there’s - something different. He can’t quite put his finger on it, but he _knows_ \--- he knows he’s right, and he knows that, for some reason, his brother doesn’t want him to be.

And maybe it’s a hunch, or maybe it’s a sudden bad decision like the ones he took as a real fourteen-year-old, but the thing is - he looks up, straight into Itachi’s sharingan. It probably is a bad decision, but if they need a private place to speak, the only place is inside his mind.

“Why did you do it?” he asks, and, not to be arrogant, pretty calm for being literally crucified. “I _know_ I’m right, you don’t have to lie to me.”

Yeah, it’s a little risky speaking about probably classified things to someone who can wipe your mind and make you believe you’re another person, but. But, despite everything he’s ever done, he knows Itachi wouldn’t do that kind of damage to him, not when mind jutsus can turn someone’s brain into goo.

“You don’t know anything, little brother.” The voice is so quiet that if they weren’t in a completely silent place, he probably wouldn’t have heard it. But he has, and he has heard the disdain, the confusion and, more importantly, the regret.

He needs to press that statement.

However, Itachi doesn’t give him time. In less than a second, there’s a sword impaled in his shoulder and many more coming towards him.

Riku screams.

Kairi’s skin goes ticklish when she hears Riku’s screams, and the half second she stops to look in his direction, where he’s with his brother (ex-Konoha ninja, caused the Uchiha massacre for motives yet unknown) costs her greatly --- namely, she gets a stomachful of Kisame’s (ex-Kiri ninja, one of the seven swordsmen of the Mist) and a backful of wall. 

Ouch.

“Kairi!” Sora yelps, glancing at her from the corner of his eyes. Before Kairi has time to warn him, though, Kisame slams his sword against his skull (she sucks air), and he crashes to the floor next to her, eyes unfocused but not vacant. She exhales, a bit relieved but not too much. Thankfully, he’s not been knocked out cold, but a concussion is not good news either.

Her right hand hovers over Sora’s head as she looks up to Kisame, who’s skulking towards them with his sword on his hands and a bloodthirsty grin on his face. It doesn’t matter that the grin is tinted with a tiny little bit of regret, because it’s obvious what’s coming, and it’s obvious they can’t stop it. 

Kairi sighs. And to think they were doing pretty well seconds earlier.

The sword _slams!_ on her leg, and she can’t scream, no matter how much it hurts, because she has no energy to do it. It’s all being sapped away in big gulps by the damn weapon, and one moment she’s sitting uptight and the other she’s collapsed on top of Sora, vision blackening and desperately fighting for a bit of air. It’s as if she doesn’t even have enough energy for her heart to beat, but, at the same time, it’s loud, bursts her ears.

Sora curls a weak arm around her and she forces herself to relax into the touch. If she’s going to die here, she’ll die as happy as she can, with one of her best friends at her side.

The wall explodes. 

It’s difficult to recognise, ‘cause it’s all filled with black dots, but… is that Jiraiya? Has he arrived just in the precise moment to save her, to save them from their immediate death? Kisame lifts his sword from her probably-broken leg, and strength slowly returns to her, but she doesn’t dare move, not with the killing intent overflowing the air. Not that she would have been much help considering the state of her leg, but whatever.

Riku is still screaming. Sora has fallen unconscious now that help is here. Kairi can’t move. What a team they make.

Jiraiya saves their collective asses and Itachi and Kisame flee. 

The expression on his face is murderous, but it’s nothing like the rage howling inside of Kairi. She’s had all the fight to think about their performance --- _her_ performance --- and - and now she can’t wait to pummel that shark’s face into the ground, to pulverise his nose like he pulverised her leg. The only motive Itachi’s not in the same bag it’s ‘cause he’s Riku’s.

And then Gai comes, ready to take Riku back to Konoha’s hospital, and notifies them Kakashi’s just been in a fight against the Uchiha asshole and he’s in the same state as Riku. 

Kairi’s heart jumps to her throat, and her eyes linger on Riku. He’s stopped screaming, yes, but his eyes are still unfocused, lifeless, and the only reason she doesn’t cry right there and then is that she’s furious enough to override her despair. 

Two precious people unconscious --- well, three, but Sora will wake up any time now, thanks to his regeneration power. So, two people trapped in a nightmarish genjutsu, and the best medic of all history in hiding from them.

Not for much longer, Kairi is sorry to say, and mentally apologises to Senju Tsunade, because she will drag her out screaming if that’s what it takes.

Sora wakes up when they are halfway there and it’s a huge relief for Kairi’s back, who was supporting his entire weight (Jiraiya had offered to carry him, but after that fiasco earlier, Kairi wasn’t too keen on trusting him so soon, not with Sora. Never with Sora). While he thankfully walks on his own two feet, they explain the situation, and his eyes go dark --- but only for a moment. On the next, he’s already gushing about how cool it is to meet your idol.

He doesn’t stop gushing until they’re literally in front of her. 

“You’re,” he says, and his face does some complicated microgestures, “drunk?”

“Hell yeah I am, kid,” the drunkard, Senju Tsunade, the probable Fifth Hokage, slurs, a bottle of alcohol swaying in her fingers. Some of the liquid spills on Sora’s pants and man, the face of deadpan he makes. Man, the fucking face. It takes all of Kairi’s willpower not to burst out laughing --- this is the best example of karma she’s seen since - since - since - _eve_ r. That’ll teach Sora not to tease her for her choice in masters! “Waiter! Another one!”

This is not the first time in the night Tsunade asks for “another one”, so the waiter has it ready for battle. In a second, Tsunade chugs down half the bottle and wipes her mouth. Leaning forward, with her elbows firmly planted on the table, she narrows her eyes at Jiraiya. “So. Why are you here?”

“Tsunade-hime---”

“Now that I think about it,” she says, and chugs down the other half, “I don’t want to hear it. Waiter!”

Jiraiya’s grin melts into a frown. “Tsuna---”

“Shush, shush!” She points an angry finger at him --- or well, at the wall next to him. Wow, she _is_ drunk. In the background, Sora grimaces. Kairi covers her mouth to hide a grin. “I don’t want to know! I don’t want to see you even! Go away and let me enjoy my drink in peace!”

Jiraiya’s frown turns into a dejected look. It’s the kind of fake comical expression that hides real hurt, like when someone grins even though their feelings are damaged --- like that. Coming from old teammates… Wow, bad history much? It’s probably Orochimaru’s fault, ‘cause everything is.

Before he can speak or Sora can burst into whining, Tsunade’s companion comes into play and rests one hand on her shoulder. “Tsunade-sama,” she says, frowning a little like a disappointed puppy. “Stop treating them so rudely. And don’t swear, there are kids here.”

Tsunade pouts. On a woman the same age as Jiraiya, no matter how much she doesn’t look like it, the gesture is ridiculous and frankly a bit embarrassing. “Shi-zu-ne…”

“Don’t Shizune me, shisou.” Oh, so she’s her apprentice! Aw, poor Sora, his position is already taken --- although he probably doesn’t want it after this… show. “Apologise to them.”

The pout intensifies. “Don’t wanna.” 

Kairi is going to die of cringe. It’s going to finish the job Orochimaru tried to start, it’s going to, and her grave’ll have to say _Died ‘cause of Tsunade’s midlife crisis and her attempts to avoid growing old_. Really, she would be a graceful old woman (maybe), why avoid it?

“ _Shisou_ ,” Shizune says sharply. Sora grins --- oh? --- and approaches her, words already tumbling out of his lips.

Tsunade sighs and mumbles, “Sorry…”

Yeah, that’s ridiculous, but there’s no need to bother themselves with a traumatised drunk. _Except_ for the part that they’re here to do just that. So better end this shit show and get right to business, right? No need to end lives anymore.

“We need you to be hokage,” Kairi says, and Tsunade’s fake pout changes to something more real. Kairi wants to be amused, but honestly it’s fucking frustrating. She understands hating Konoha like the best of them, but seriously, get a grip. Konoha won’t stop existing if you don’t do anything to destroy it.

“Look, girl,” Tsunade answers, and just when the slur is receding a little, she drinks another bottle in one swing. Disgusting. “I won’t set a foot in Konoha if it’s the last thing I do in my life. I will _die_ before I return there. You’ll have to drag me kicking and screaming and, even with that, you won’t get me to be _hokage_.”

Kairi raises an eyebrow defiantly. Before she can speak, though, Jiraiya beats her to the punch. “I’m sorry to say this is not a choice, Tsunade-hime. Konoha needs you.”

And Tsunade’s expression goes stormy, and she raises from her seat, knocking half the bottles off the table. She stumbles towards the exit, calling an “Add it to my tab!” to weary waiter. From the way he sighs, it’s clear this is neither the first time it happens nor the first time she doesn’t pay. Poor man. “Shizune! Stop talking to that brat and come with me!”

 _That brat_ is Sora, who frowns at his new friend being metaphorically pulled away from him. Shizune apologises and tells him they’ll speak on some other time, and he grins at her while wiggling his fingers. Cute. If Riku were here, he’d die from diabetes.

Riku. Kairi sighs again. There’s no good cheer to break, but the thought manages to bring down her mood a little bit more. 

Of course, they’re ninjas, and that’s obviously not the end of it. 

The next day, Jiraiya offers them to teach them some techniques, tells them he’ll go speak to Tsunade while they practise, but they vehemently refuse. On the one hand, techniques from Jiraiya are juicy, juicy, but, on the other, Riku and Kakashi are priorities, and therefore, Tsunade comes first. Also, Kairi wants to tell her a few things, and from the way he’s vibrating, Sora does, too.

So they refuse, and Jiraiya’s face goes through a lot of things in one second. Kairi only notices because she’s paying attention (unlike _others_ ), and - why does he feel regret at not teaching them techniques? Like, there’ll be other moments. Kairi’ll make them be. There’s no need to worry.

Anyways, they go after Tsunade and find her snoring the hangover away in a hotel room, Shizune dutifully studying on the table next to Tsunade’s bed, a pig on her lap. She looks up when they enter (by the window, of course, because they’re ninjas) and beams at Sora, who smiles back. 

Ohohoho?

“Hi,” Shizune says, and motions for them to enter. Sora skips inside, and it’s obviously he wants to chat with Shizune some more. If Kairi didn’t know he’s been repressing feelings for Riku since forever and hasn’t realised it yet because he’s all for the friendship… Well, she’d have thought there’s a thing here. 

“Hello,” Jiraiya answers, adopting his Macho Voice™. He… is not trying to flirt with Shizune, right? This is just a reflex, _right_? Thankfully, it seems to be, because his eyes slide to Tsunade’s ungraceful body. She’s snoring and drooling and Kairi wants to avert her eyes but she can’t because of a weird, embarrassing fascination. “Have you managed to convince her?”

Kairi snorts. Ha! Convince means she has a choice on the matter. No, with Konoha she doesn’t.

“No…” Shizune sighs and pets the pig, who oinks and that’s the cutest thing ever. “Shisou is… she has…” And then, she proceeds to tell them a highly private story about Tsunade’s trauma, and isn’t she going to get angry when she wakes up? Oh, wait, she’s already awake, just pretending to sleep to probably have a dramatic moment when Shizune finishes her tale. She’s a good actress, but her pupils move from behind her eyelids. Kairi one, legendary Sannin zero.

And true to her prediction, when Shizune finishes mournfully telling them about her master’s decline, Tsunade’s eyes shap open. “ _Shizune_ ,” she growls, as if she couldn’t have stopped Shizune from spilling the beans at any moment. Shizune squeaks in surprise. “Stop. Talking. And you!” Her thunderous expression turns on them --- more precisely, on Jiraiya. “I told you I don’t want to see you again! What the _fuck_ are you doing here?” 

“Look, lady,” Sora says before Jiraiya can open his mouth. His left hand is twitching. Oh, man, Tsunade has really fallen hard from her pedestal, hasn’t she? “I’m sorry to say it, but you have no choice.” _Thank you_. Finally, someone who reasons. “So you can come with dignity or you can fight it out with Jiraiya and lose, because you’re out of shape and he isn’t.”

Tsunade curls into herself, but the glare she sends them is the fiercest she’s shown until now, all convenient shadows and harshly glowing eyes. They’ve faced against worst things, but man, this is pretty scary. Kairi wants to scream, half ironically and half, well, not.

“Na - Sora…” Jiraiya’s face when he looks at him is so dejected and kicked-puppy-ly Kairi’s heart actually squeezes. Who knew a sixty-year-old guy could look so young and naïve? “It’s not like that. What… what has made you think that?”

Sora’s hand curls over his stomach, just over where the seal is, and Jiraiya’s mouth forms an unhappy _oh_ . Kairi can _see_ gears turning inside his mind, preparing an excuse for Sora being a cage for the strongest demon of all time, but there’s no way she’ll allow the discussion to stray from its course. Not when Tsunade is finally starting to realise her situation.

“Anyways,” Kairi says sharply. “You’re coming with us. I’m sorry you don’t like it --- I don’t like it either. But it is what it is. For now. If you really dislike Konoha that much, you won’t have a better opportunity to change it than being hokage.”

Tsunade’s eyes soften, but they still have fight left in them. Which is a problem, ‘cause Kairi doesn’t have anymore left to say, Jiraiya is still sad and examining his privileged beliefs, and Sora… has fallen to his knees? Has put his hands on the floor? Has bowed his head?

...Oooooo- _kay_. A dogeza. Okay. Let’s see where this goes.

“I’m an orphan.” Oh, boy. This is off to a great start. “And my first memory is also the last I have of my parents. I was there. A masked guy made my father choose between me and the village, and eventually, he chose the village.”

Jiraiya tenses, bristles. “That’s not -”

“It is,” Sora says to the floor, and his tone is so resolute Kairi actually gets chills down her back. “I was there and I know what happened. My father put a demon inside me because he chose the village, and I don’t resent him for it. I was also there when he made the Third promise the village would treat me as a hero. We all know how that ended.”

This would actually be a perfect place for a bitter laugh, but Sora is so serious that Kairi doesn’t act the sound effects. No need to break the mood when both Sannin are staring at him so intensely.

“I was three when I started to live on my own, because the carers at the orphanage tried to kill me. When I was five, I started going to the academy, and no one wanted to be my friend because their parents hated me enough to warn them off. 

“Even so, I had Riku and Kairi, who were willing to fight against the family for me.” And here, his voice turns soft, and his mouth turns into a smile, and Kairi’s heart turns into goo. Aw. “At eight, Riku’s family was killed by his own brother.” _Probably ordered by the hokage_ , he doesn’t say, but it must be on his lips as much as it is on Kairi’s thoughts. “At ten, Kairi was disowned for daring to be my friend. At thirteen, a corrupt teacher failed me in my graduation exam, even though I was qualified enough for it, and made me commit a crime.”

“Then, you must hate Konoha, too,” Tsunade says, smirking. “There’s no way you don’t, not after what they’ve done to you. To your friends.”

Sora continues as if he hasn’t heard her. “When I was a baby, my parents chose to die so I could live, instead of watching the village they loved grow. Their last words were good wishes for me. When I was three, I started to live on my own, and a nice ramen maker and his daughter who lived nearby - they brought me ramen every day. I started going to the academy at five, and that’s when I met the greatest friends I could ever wish for.”

“Sora…” Kairi whispers, covering her mouth to avoid tearing up. She knows they’re the greatest friends, but she didn’t know Sora knew it too.

“At eight, Shisui, the only other Uchiha survivor, started to check on me every time he was on the village, check if I was fine living alone, if I was doing okay. He had enough on his plate, he didn’t have to, but he did it anyway. When I was ten, Kairi was disowned for being with me, but she kept being with me and fighting everyone who - protested otherwise. At thirteen, Shisui saved me from the madman who failed me and made me commit a crime.

“Then, I was put on a team with my best friends, and I met a great teacher. Even though he was clearly scared of having a team, he passed us and, when our first C-rank went to hell, he told us to save ourselves and leave him to die. After the second stage of the chunin exams, it was him who blocked the seal Orochimaru put on me.”

“ _Orochimaru_ bit you?!” both Sannin exclaim at the same time, twin expressions of horror on their faces.

Sora’s fingers curl on the floorboards as he raises his head, blue eyes staring into Tsunade’s with an intensity that would frighten most. His next words are sharp, clear, pointed. “Yes. I have more than enough reasons to hate Konoha, but… it’s not completely bad. There are good people there, and, right now, those people need you. So please, come back to the village.”

There are things unspoken there, Kairi knows, things so traitorous he can’t risk to say, even in a speech about Konoha’s façades. Things like _If we didn’t like Konoha, we would have already left_ or _We’re capable enough to stage a revolution and topple the entire village if we wanted to_ or _Thank your lucky stars there are good people there_. Okay, maybe that last one is more hers than his, but still.

“The moment I’m ready,” Kairi adds, because she can’t leave Sora to do all the job, “I will take the mantle from you, so don’t worry. You won’t stay long.”

“Hah?” Tsunade sneers. “Is that a challenge?”

“It’s a fact,” Kairi says, and smiles at the implicit agreement on Tsunade’s question. She feels kind of bad for forcing her hand, for having her come back with emotional manipulation, but, well, she’s not lying when she says it won’t be for long.

Tsunade not only declares she’ll accept to be hokage, she also nominates herself to be Sora’s master, because, in her words, _a brat so unlucky needs the help of a fucking Sannin to even attempt to survive, and I’m the only one free._ Sora grimaces, and mutters that he wanted Shizune, but ultimately accepts, ‘cause, honestly, she’s kind of right. 

And when he tells her he’s training to be a medic, her eyes shine in a very, very scary way. Kairi prays Sora survives this one. 

When Konoha’s within seeing distance, Kairi and Sora hurry towards the village, tugging their respective sensei along with them. 

“Come, come, come, come,” Kairi says under her breath, jogging through the village with everyone at her tow. People look at them with a mix of terror, hate and, newly enough, amazement, but she’s so used to mobs staring at her like she’s not a human being that the only reason it even registers it’s because she can’t not see things like these. “To the hospital, to the hospital, to the hospital, to the hospital!”

In two minutes, they’re there. Thirty seconds later, they’re in front of Riku’s room, and Sora’s telling Tsunade to run, run, _run_. Tsunade insists on going at her pace, but she’s a Sannin and Sora’s making her nervous, so it’s not long before she’s there too. After the most gruelling five minutes of Kairi’s life (okay, that’s an exaggeration, but let her be dramatic here), Riku wakes up.

His eyes are dead when he opens them, which gives Kairi a flashback to _that_ time, but thankfully --- and pretty sadly ---, he has experience with traumatic mindfucks, and in the next second, feelings are returning to him. Confusion, anger, realisation, and, when he looks at them, love.

Kairi’s eyes itch. She blinks the tears away, and she lunges at him at the same time as Sora, just to melt into a tight hug. Warmth dances inside her, a pretty nice replacement of the cold dread she's been burying down since the fight, and she smiles into Riku’s shoulder.

Maybe Riku hugs Sora a tiny teensy itty bitty bit harder, but who cares about that. Riku’s awake, and they’re together once again.

Kakashi wakes up next. 

There’s no hug, because no matter how much Kakashi ruffles their hair, he’s not a tactile person, but they’re there for him nonetheless. When he opens his eyes, they’re as calm and bored as ever, just like at the start of a normal day, when he gives some excuse about his lateness even though none of them asked.

“...So,” he says, voice slow, careful, rough like he hasn’t spoken in days. Which he hasn’t, “why are there two legendary Sannin in this room? Do I need to apologise to someone?”

His visible eye curves happily. He reaches up to scratch his nape, and his fingers tremble.

Kairi doesn’t comment on it. She just - tells him about their adventures (quickly going over the worst parts, of course), and watches his mind wander away from whatever is making him shake. Maybe he won’t tell them what it is now, but once he does --- because he _will_ \--- Kairi’ll pummel their life out of their body, so they don’t bother her sensei anymore. She calls dibs on it, boys.

“Riku, Riku, Riku, Riku,” Sora calls one day, sprawled upside down on his couch. He had been quiet, watching TV along with her, but the moment Riku walks through the door, he goes into Annoying Mode #04 --- the whiney one, which was cute the first thousand times it happened, but now, on the three-millionth, it’s not. “ _Ri_ -ku.”

Riku smiles at him. Clearly, Kairi is alone in her opinions. “What?”

“Did you know Tsunade told me all about chakra today? Well, not _all_ , but she told me a lot, and now I have a theory for you! For your chakra, I mean.”

“I - didn’t know that, no,” says Riku, and he flops himself down on the couch, in between Kairi and Sora. She’s kind of tempted to go away, both because she wants to encourage them getting handsy by giving them privacy and because she wouldn’t stand it if they got handsy in front of her. This smells like geek talk, though, which means no touching, so with a sigh, she resigns herself to another day with untold feelings. Great.

Anyways, it’s a long-winded explanation, ‘cause Sora can’t summarise for shit, but the result is like this: chakra is in all living things, and Riku is alive, so Riku has chakra. He can’t use it and can’t be really affected by it, because, apparently, the darkness still lingering in his body (Riku grimaces) has gone into the Yin chakra and unbalanced it with the Yang chakra, or something like that. Chakra needs a perfect balance, so for Riku to use chakra, he needs to stock up his Yang.

How? Well, they’ll need to research it --- Sora wanted to relay his theory first. It’s still a hypothesis, though, but really, Sora’s hypothesis are never too far from the truth, and even if this is the first one, they won’t lose anything from diving into the topic a little more. Especially Sora, whom Tsunade will punch into the ground if he answers three questions wrongly. Nope, no harm to Sora.

Things settle into a ninja kind of normalcy.

Miraculously, Lee’s leg is on the way to a successful a complete recovery, thanks to Tsunade’s intervention --- this is the third time she saves one of her people, and, no matter how pathetic she was when they found her, Kairi will have to repay her by taking the hat away from her soon. Not that taking her away from a life full of gambling and depression was a small feat, but whatever. 

Kakashi also recovered, and now that they have shown a degree of self-sufficiency, he’s started taking medium-long missions outside of the village. He drops by Sora’s every time he’s on the village, though, which is a big feat for someone so introvertedly isolated. He’s still at least three hours late to everything.

Shisui has officially reached the title of Most Epic Blind Person Ever by becoming an apprentice to the jonin commander. Kairi’ll enjoy having him as her right hand man when she’s the hokage, no matter how soon Riku will take his position.

Tsunade and Sora are on the way to a mutually respectful relationship, even though there’s a lot of punching and teasing --- you can guess who does what. Sora complains non stop about her, but there’s a sort of admiration in his eyes when speaks about the lessons. Shizune is still the main focus of his compliments, though.

Riku has started training his Yang chakra. He doesn’t have a master, so it’s a bit slow-going, but it’s going, and that’s what’s important. It would have been kind of fun if he were Orochimaru’s apprentice, to complete the Sannin collection, but, on the other hand - nah, the joke’s not worth it. He doesn’t seem too bothered with his lack of a master, though, which is convenient and not at all surprising --- Riku’s the lone wolf of the group, after all.

As for her…

“What do you mean I’m going away from Konoha? What do you mean _two years_?”

Jiraiya raises his arms placatingly, a cowered expression on his face. Good. He should fear for his life. And for his crotch. “D-don’t look at me like that, Kairi,” he says, gulping. Kairi’s glare intensifies. “Tsunade-hime told me to show you my - my spy network and to train you.”

“You are already _training_ me! Keep doing that here! In Konoha!”

Okay, maybe she’s crossing the line a bit, but - she can’t help it. Going away from this shithole place is like a gift sent from heaven. _Would_ be, if it weren’t for the other hand: things are finally starting to look good, and Kairi wants to enjoy a few years of peace with her people before another shitshow comes barreling towards them. And that _will_ happen, ‘cause Riku’s brother wore an organisation cloak, and there’s no way that won’t affect them directly.

And besides - Sora and Riku living alone? For two years? She wants to think it’ll end on kisses and passionate touches, but who is she kidding, without her here there’s no way they’ll advance their relationship. They’ll probably die earlier, from wearing the same t-shirt for three months or something like that. 

“Don’t kill the messenger --- it wasn’t my idea!” Jiraiya whines, and takes a step backwards as he says, “It was Tsunade-hime’s! She said you wouldn’t take the hat away from her in a million years if you kept going at your current pace please don't kill me!”

Kairi hesitates, all heat gone from her posture in an instant. That… kind of stings. She has to acknowledge it’s true, though: lately, she’s not been training much, preferring to spend time with her friends and read about Riku’s condition and gain a new prostitute’s heart. It’s true she’s not been devoting herself to physical training, but…

“But isn’t two years kind of too long?” she protests, although she can already smell the lost argument.

Jiraiya chuckles. For some reason, it makes Kairi want to kneel him. “How long do you think it takes to be hokage, little miss?”

“Well, yeah, but…” Okay, she’s not that proud to not admit that Jiraiya’s right. She sighs. “I still don’t want to go.”

Why is it that, just when everything is starting to calm down, she has to go away from what she has helped to achieve? She wants to enjoy herself a little more, before being pulled back to reality again. Is that so much to ask? She doesn’t think so, but life apparently has other plans.

Jiraiya looks at her with eyes that say _you have to_ , and Kairi purses her lips but nods, because she knows. She knows she has to, and she knows that Konoha doesn’t ask, just demands, no matter how much Jiraiya likes to pretend it’s not like that. Man, she needs to be hokage already and change the system. There’s no time to waste.

“Does it really have to be two years?” she whines, glancing pleadfully up at him, although she already knows the answer. One of the main parts of spying is going undercover for a long time. If she wants to see her friends regularly, she shouldn’t have picked this career. “Don’t answer, I already know.”

Jiraiya smiles at her and ruffles her hair, and, although he’s smiling, there’s a tinge of an apology in that gesture.

For some unfathomable reason, Jiraiya decides to depart at asscrack in the morning --- you know, that time when the sun is peeking out of the horizon but you can still see the stars. The time in which normal people should be sleeping, cuddled by their beds and their loved ones.

Thankfully, Kairi has the best friends ever, and they’re certainly not normal people, so they’re all there to send her off with smiles and good-natured claps in the back and hair ruffling. Kairi whines and pouts, but she makes sure to thank everyone for coming individually. Shisui, Kakashi, Teuchi, Ayame, Lee, Gai, Tsunade, Shizune, and, obviously, Riku and Sora. 

She’s pleasantly surprised the others have come, no matter how much they’re socially obligated to (Kakashi), but if any of her boys hadn’t come… Maybe she would have been enraged, but honestly, she would have probably burst into tears.

But they’re here! So there’s no problem. She can cry on them while she crushes the life out of them with a hug, instead of repressing her tears until she’s alone at night.

“Now, now, Kairi,” Sora manages to say, and pats her back one, two, three times. He probably means it to be soothing, but he’s crying too and it only makes her sob harder. Even Riku is tearing up, and Riku _never_ cries.

“I don’t want to go!” She tightens her grip on her boys. Sora oof!s. “I don’t want to be separated from you!” Again.

Riku hears the unspoken, and his hand travels to rest against her nape. She looks into his too-bright eyes and sniffles. “We’ll see each other again, remember? You were the one who said it.”

Her mind flashes back to the day they ate the paopu fruit. “I remember. Together forever, right?”

They smile, brilliant and so, so lovely, and chorus, “No. Even longer.”

Her heart swells, too big for her chest. Her boys - they’re the best friends she could ever hope for. Maybe even better. She’s so, so, _so_ glad she’s met them. To be under the same sky. For a long time, she thought the paopu fruit was kind of a scam, no matter how pretty a legend, but man, eating it was the best decision of her life. 

She giggles, breaking the hug just to punch them each in their shoulders. “You are _so_ cheesy!” 

_But nothing but the best_ , goes unspoken, but certainly not unheard.

**Author's Note:**

> i don't remember a lick about shippuden, that's why i haven't written it. sorry


End file.
